GENEVA, Switzerland, Sept 11, 2024 (BSS) - To increase participation and
ensure competitiveness in the world trade, Director-General of the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala observed that developing
countries should lower their trade costs.

"High trade costs constrain countries' access to foreign markets and cheap
inputs, to the mobility and information frictions, skill mismatches, and
limited access to finance that, too often, mean people cannot seizing new
opportunities," she said.

The DG said this at a recent press briefing at WTO headquarters.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the high trade costs issue partly stems from trade
policies, including high compliance costs associated with foreign standards
and incomplete implementation of trade facilitation measures.

Additionally, domestic factors, such as underdeveloped physical
infrastructure and inefficient infrastructure services play a significant
role in hindering trade, she added.

Referring to a data of the World Trade Report 2024, she said, trade cost
reductions between 1995 and 2020 led to around a 6.8 per cent increase in
global real GDP over the period, with low-income economies growing by around
33 per cent.

She informed that the trade costs reductions led to between 20 and 35 per
cent faster income convergence of low and middle- income economies, trade in
services with LDCs than with high-income economies.

"The cost of doing business in some African countries is very expensive. That
cost is equal to about 300 percent customs rate. The people of such countries
are left behind because of trade. We have to work to improve it," she added.

She said that the "digital divide" in poor countries should be ended as the
future business is digital business.

"As we look forward to trade we have to recognize the ways the world trading
system is changing. That trade is digital now, services, it's green, and it
should also be inclusive. So trying to tackle the issue of inclusiveness is a
very important one," she added.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, however, said fast-growing trade in digitally-delivered
services and environmental goods offer exciting opportunities, with digital
trade in particular lowering the bar for enabling under represented
economies, small businesses and women entrepreneurs to connect to
international markets.

In an era when global supply chains have exhibited some vulnerabilities,
deconcentrating and diversifying them to business-friendly but
underrepresented regions and economies can be part of fostering
inclusiveness, while also building global resilience, she added.