A new promise for global trade: Navigating the challenges of the 21st Century
Sixty years ago, two organizations were born from a shared vision: to create a global trade landscape that was based on inclusivity, fairness, and shared prosperity. This year, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Group of 77 and China, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) celebrate their 60th anniversaries.
The world has changed dramatically in those six decades. Developing countries, once relegated to the periphery of the global economy, have risen to become major players, accounting for a considerable proportion of global trade and economic activity.
Small businesses – the lifeblood of ITC's work – are increasingly integrated into global value chains, linking the farmer in Peru to the fashion designer in Italy, the software engineer in India to the entrepreneur in Kenya. Extreme poverty has fallen at a dramatic pace. And humanity has never been as interconnected as it is today.
Yet, as we celebrate these achievements, we must also acknowledge the setbacks of recent years, with a cascading crisis of systemic shocks – from the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, from rising poverty and hunger to growing debt burdens, from proliferating human conflict to geoeconomic fragmentation.
The last six decades are testament to the fact that the impact of trade on development is not predetermined. It can be a catalyst for inclusion, empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs, improving working conditions, and fostering sustainable growth. But it can also be a driver of exclusion, perpetuating commodity dependence, entrenching inequalities and volatile boom-bust cycles, and fueling environmental degradation.
We must therefore use this opportunity to confront the stark realities of our time. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of our interdependent world, while conflict in the Black Sea and the Red Sea, and drought in the Panama Canal, have disrupted critical supply chains, underscoring the fragility of our global trade networks. The imperative to transition towards a cleaner, more sustainable global economy is more pressing than ever, yet many developing countries lack the resources, technologies, and capacity to navigate this transition. And cross-border trade and investment flows to the Global South are not growing fast enough to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Trade can be part of the solution. But only if we make it so. We need to root global trade in the principles of equity, sustainability, and resilience. This means empowering small businesses, particularly those in developing countries, to participate fully in global trade and reap its benefits.
It means access to technologies that will make digital-led development and the energy transition possible; it means connectivity and infrastructure that will allow more efficiency and productive diversification; and it means creating a global trading system where countries can insert themselves to compete, creating quality jobs especially for women and the youth.
The energy transition presents a unique opportunity to do this. Investing in renewable energy and green technologies can create new jobs, reduce emissions, and foster economic growth.
It can also empower developing countries, many of which are rich in the critical minerals needed for the green transition. And it can create new global supply chains that can apply in the 21st century the hard lessons learned in the 20th.
ITC, with its focus on small business and trade-led development, is well-positioned to play a key role in this transformation. By providing training, advisory services, and market access support, ITC can help small businesses navigate the complexities of global trade and seize the opportunities of the next 60 years.
This is the promise of 1964, the promise that gave birth to UNCTAD and ITC. It is a promise that remains as relevant and urgent today as it was then. Let us seize this moment to reaffirm that promise and build a better future for all through trade.
