The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development calls for reforming trade rules to better promote development

Recently, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development released its latest Global Trade Update report, which pointed out the need to reform current trade rules to address issues such as lack of predictability, weakened development issues, and insufficient representation of the least developed countries, in order to better promote development.

We need to restore the predictability of global trade rules through reform. The report points out that currently, the certainty of global trade rules is gradually being replaced by sustained policy fluctuations, which pose significant challenges to the economic growth and trade participation of developing countries. By reforming trade rules, especially WTO reform, the certainty and predictability of international trade rules can be restored, providing a stable trading environment for developing countries and promoting their economic growth and development.

Reforms are needed to ensure the participation of developing countries in international trade. The report points out that for many developing countries, trade has been the core driving force behind their economic expansion over the past two decades. Integration into the global market promotes investment, technology diffusion, job creation, and the transition to high value-added activities. Despite the commitment of the multilateral trading system to support development, many developing countries are still unable to fully participate in and benefit from international trade. Especially the proportion of exports from the least developed countries in global exports is still very low, and development oriented clauses often fail to translate into actual market access or added value enhancement. Currently, the proportion of service trade in the global economy is rapidly expanding, becoming a key factor for economic growth, technological innovation, and international competitiveness. However, the participation of the least developed countries in service trade is extremely low, facing multiple obstacles such as differences in regulatory frameworks, licensing procedures, and professional standards. Reforming trade rules can promote the reduction of barriers such as market access restrictions, tariff barriers, and non-tariff measures, providing developing countries with broader market access opportunities, thereby promoting their exports and economic growth.

It is necessary to further highlight the core position of the development agenda through reform. The report points out that for most developing countries, trade is the core driving force for their economic growth, investment, technology diffusion, and job creation. Reform needs to ensure that developing countries are not further marginalized. The report emphasizes that in the process of WTO reform, it is necessary to focus on the priority development issues of developing countries, among which agriculture is a key area for developing countries to seek concrete results, including core issues such as domestic support and market access; Service trade negotiations lag behind goods trade, and developing countries seek stronger commitments in market access, professional qualification recognition, digital trade rules, and regulatory transparency; Emerging issues such as digital trade and decarbonization provide new opportunities for developing countries to participate in the global value chain, but multilateral rules are needed to ensure inclusivity and non discrimination.

The report emphasizes that the reform of the world trading system needs to place development issues at the core, restore the fairness, inclusiveness, and sustainability of the multilateral trading system, promote the economic structural transformation, inclusive growth, green development, and digital capacity enhancement of developing countries, ensure that they are not marginalized in emerging trade fields such as digital trade and low-carbon economy, and better drive global development.