The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) continued to nurture the rapid growth of South South trade and commerce.

The strong growth of the global economy in 2003 and 2004 was both reflected in and driven by strong growth in world trade.

In tandem with an expected fall in world economic growth in 2005, growth in international trade is also expected to slow in real terms.

Europe s extensive regional and global trade networks mean that its internal problems are impeding world trade and, in turn, global economic growth. In 2012, world trade expanded by only 2.5 , while global GDP grew at a disappointing 3.2 rate.

Economic growth is a powerful driver of development, supported by comprehensive trade liberalization by developed and developing countries alike under the World Trade Organization and Doha round negotiations.

Evidence shows that growth in ICT goods and services trade has been higher than growth in total trade.

With respect to trade, the forthcoming World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting provides an important opportunity for significant decisions to be taken to reform the world trading system so as to provide better opportunities for trade to contribute to Africa's long term growth and development.

Free Trade, Free Labor, Free Growth

Trade liberalization has been stalled for too long. Since the end of World War II, American presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, have promoted free trade as a key pillar of growth.

10 World Trade Organization, World Trade Report 2003, pp. 22 32.

Also see Dollar, D. and Kraay, A. (2001) Trade, growth and poverty , World Bank Policy Research Department, Working Paper No. 2615, Washington DC.

The expansion of many developing countries' trade and economic growth contrasts sharply with the difficulties faced by many low income countries in integrating themselves beneficially into world trade and into the global economy.

Growth is an important poverty reducing force, and trade is the engine of growth.

The capacity of trade to raise incomes, boost long term growth and increase financial flows for development has yet to be reflected in South South trade, even though from 1990 to 2001 merchandise trade among developing countries expanded twice as rapidly as world trade and trade in services grew even faster.

Since eurozone countries trade extensively with each other and the rest of the world, their slowdowns have contributed significantly to a decrease in global trade, in turn undermining global growth. In particular, as European imports from East Asia have fallen, East Asian economies growth is down sharply from last year and the 2010 forecast and, predictably, growth in their imports from the rest of the world has lost momentum.

(iv) World Trade Organization (WTO) WTO Trade Facilitation

World Trade Organization

The ESCAP region is a major contributor to world trade growth, with both exports and imports growing faster than world exports and imports and with China becoming the world's third largest trading nation.

A PECC study forecasts that by 2025, the Asia Pacific Free Trade Zone will contribute US 2. 4 trillion of economic growth to the world economy.

Faced with weak demand in advanced countries, Asian economies are working to rebalance their sources of growth by shifting toward domestic and regional markets. As a result, growth in intra regional trade has outpaced overall trade growth, with intra Asian trade now accounting for more than half of the continent s total trade turnover.

A Post Growth World?

During the last 20 years, the world has witnessed dramatic proliferation of regional and bilateral preferential trade agreements. Indeed, bilateral trade flows covered by such agreements now amount to roughly half of the world s imports, and have contributed significantly to the dramatic growth of trade.

Trade data tell the story after increasing by about 7 annually in the decade before 2008, world trade fell faster than global GDP in 2009 (and more sharply than during the Great Depression). Once the brief stimulus fueled recovery faded, growth in world trade again slowed quickly, falling to 2 year on year over the past 18 months.

Our countries would benefit from world growth resulting from a spirit of fair trade where the advances of some are not made at the expense of others.

Trade, growth and development should be mutually supportive and reinforcing.

Yet trade barriers were an obstacle to recovery and growth.

World Trade Centers Association

WTO World Trade Organization

The world trade multiplier, though less widely recognized, helps to explain why the growth deceleration has been so widespread and persistent. When a country s economic growth slows, it imports less from other countries, thereby reducing those countries growth rates, and causing them, too, to reduce imports.

As a framework for promoting world trade and economic growth WTO played a fundamental role when it came to establishing just and non discriminatory multilateral trade relations and providing transitional and developing countries with guidelines to help them to gain access to world markets on terms of equality.

This is also the moment to inject new energy into the Doha round of global trade talks. A successful conclusion of the round would be the strongest possible action to counter protectionist tendencies and resume growth in world trade.

(c) Asia and the Pacific The region has one of the highest rates of economic growth in the world, which has largely been fuelled by industrialization and international trade.

Empirical evidence has shown that the growth in trade of ICT goods and services has grown at a faster pace than growth in total trade and remains high despite an overall global slow down in the trade of such goods.

The World Trade Organization secretariat has made technical assistance on trade facilitation one of the priorities of the World Trade Organization Technical Assistance Plan for 2005.

The last years have seen a growth of RTAs covering services trade.

We must resolve to transform international trade into an engine of growth.

Ms. Nora Neufeld, World Trade Organization

and New Sectors of World Trade

Source World Trade Organization, May 2005.

The World Trade Organization is now disseminating trade profiles of economies combining trade flows with trade policy information sourced from within the World Trade Organization and other organizations and OECD has developed a prototype on trade indicators (trade plus production, employment, investment, etc.) linking standardized information from various OECD databases to trade data.

Growth in agriculture and trade continues to be impeded by poor road networks.

Trade must be an instrument to accelerate growth and development and fight poverty.

Today some 50 per cent of world trade takes place within regional trade agreements.

(e) Cooperation with the World Trade Organization

E. Cooperation with the World Trade Organization