RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
World Trade Report 2014
Trade and development: recent trends and the role of the WTO
The World Trade Report 2014 looks at how four recent major economic trends have changed how developing countries can use trade to facilitate their development. These trends are the economic rise of developing economies, the growing integration of global production through supply chains, the higher prices for agricultural goods and natural resources, and the increasing interdependence of the world economy. The Report also looks into what role the WTO plays.
See also:
> Press release
> Brochure
Many developing countries have experienced unprecedented growth and have integrated increasingly into the global economy, thereby opening opportunities for countries still lagging behind. However, important barriers still remain.
Integration into global value chains can make industrialization in developing countries easier to achieve, and upgrading to higher-value tasks within these supply chains can support further growth. However, competitive advantage can be lost more easily and achieving upgrading can be challenging.
Higher prices for agricultural goods and natural resources have helped some developing countries achieve strong growth but higher prices can cause strains for net importers of these goods.
Growing interdependence within the global economy allows countries to benefit more quickly from growth in other parts of the world but it can also cause challenges, as crises can be quickly transmitted across borders.
Many developing countries still have a long way to go in addressing their development challenges. The multilateral trading system provides developing countries, and particularly least-developed countries, with unique opportunities to do so. Further progress in the Post-Bali Agenda would therefore be important to making trade work more effectively for development.
Published in 2014
Download pdf:
> Complete report (240 pages; 7.9MB)
> Contents, acknowledgements, disclaimer, DG Foreword and Executive Summary (15 pages; 497KB)
I- The world economy and trade in 2013 and early 2014 (22 pages; 517KB)
II-Trade and development: recent trends and the role of the WTO
> A. Introduction (14 pages; 618KB)
> B. The increasing importance of developing countries in the global economy (26 pages; 545KB)
> C. The rise of global value chains (50 pages; 851KB)
> D. A new role for commodities in development strategies (42 pages; 639KB)
> E. Increased synchronization and globalization of macroeconomic shocks (18 pages; 373KB)
> F. The WTO and developing countries (21 pages; 485KB)
> G. Conclusions (2 pages; 48KB)
> Bibliography, Technical notes, Abbreviations and symbols, List of figures, tables and boxes, WTO members, Previous World Trade Reports (30 pages; 2.7MB)
The World Trade Report 2014 is now available as an app
The app includes the full text of the Report plus the underlying data for all charts and tables in the Report. It also contains a video and photos of the launch event.
The app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play for viewing on your iPad or Android tablet.
Android
