Accelerating Decarbonization through Trade in Climate Goods and Services

By making climate-friendly technologies more readily available, trade can support climate action, and governments must work together to encourage their uptake.

Accelerating Digital Payments in Latin America and the Caribbean

Digital payment ecosystems are the invisible infrastructure powering commerce, trade and people’s daily lives. With the onset of global COVID-19 pandemic the value of digital payments for...

Conflict, Sanctions and the Future of World Trade

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been met with unprecedented trade and other economic sanctions. Some members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have revoked Russia’s most-favoured-...

Supply Chain Sustainability Policies: State of Play

Supply chains are important levers for achieving sustainability goals and have gained increased corporate, governmental and civil society attention. This white paper charts regulatory dev...

Defining and Measuring Payment Interoperability

A thriving, competitive range of digital payment methods readies countries to better connect to global trade in today's digital age. Yet the varied technical standards, laws and regulatio...

The promise of TradeTech: Policy approaches to harness trade digitalization

TradeTech adoption is moving fast, largely driven by the private sector. But leveraging technologies for trade requires more than innovation: trade policy must keep pace. The major challe...

Industrial Policy and International Competition: Trade and Investment Perspectives

There is disagreement among countries on how international rules should address the cross-border spillover effects of increased government intervention in national economies. As a result,...

Digital Trade in Services and Taxation

Digitalization has prompted growing regulatory interest, including in the area of digital taxation. Many governments have proposed and implemented digital services taxes (DSTs), even as 1...

Delivering a Climate Trade Agenda: Industry Insights

The urgency of the climate crisis demands that greater attention be given to the role of trade in accelerating emissions reductions and mitigating the effects of climate change while purs...

Advancing Data Flow Governance in the Indo-Pacific: Four Country Analyses and Dialogues

This White Paper on advancing data flow governance in the Asia-Pacific region explores international and regional best practices in four domestic contexts. In particular, the paper summar...

Mapping TradeTech: Trade in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

TradeTech, or the set of technologies and innovations that enable trade to be more efficient, inclusive, and equitable, is fundamental to harnessing the innovations of the Fourth Industri...

Facilitation 2.0: Trade and Investment in the Digital Age

Papua New Guinea has embraced growth in the digital economy and targeted e-commerce as part of its development strategy. Making “Harnessing Inclusive Opportunities, Embracing Digital Futu...

Advancing Digital Trade in Asia

Digital trade in Asia had been booming even before the COVID-19 pandemic that drove large numbers of firms and consumers online. The region has also been at the forefront of digital trade...

Digital FDI Policies, regulations and measures to attract FDI in the digital economy

FDI brings not only capital but also knowledge and technology. Attracting digital FDI can help economies and companies boost digital capabilities, but reflecting the fact that this is a n...

Facilitating Trade Along Circular Electronics Value Chains

Electronics are a critical part of our lives and even more so in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, however, too many electronics wind up in the environment, are recycle...

Plastics, the Circular Economy and Global Trade

Plastic pollution has become a pressing challenge with damaging effects on human health and environmental well-being. Many governments are seeking ways to decrease single-use plastics and...

Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT): Paths towards Free and Trusted Data Flows

Powered by data flows, digitalization has become crucial for the seamless functioning of economies and societies. Countries, however, can have concerns that once data moves abroad it will...

Connecting Digital Economies: Policy Recommendations for Cross-Border Payments

The rapid expansion of access to digital payments has made it possible for consumers to conveniently make purchases for goods and services from merchants around the world. The current COV...

How Can Trade Rules Support Environmental Action?

As governments and businesses grapple with the effects of COVID-19, other global challenges remain. Once the immediate crisis abates, countries must intensify environmental action to tack...

The Future of Trade and Investment: A Call to Prevent Economic Fragmentation

In January 2019, the Global Future Council on International Trade and Investment outlined four potential scenarios for the future of global trade and investment. This briefing paper takes...

International Investment in the Age of Geopolitical Competition, Technological Change and Trade Confrontation

Geopolitical tensions have shaken business confidence, leading to decreased global investment flows. This briefing paper by the Global Future Council on International Trade and Investment...

Exploring International Data Flow Governance

The digital economy is facing two divergent trends. Information is moving across borders at record volumes, yet domestic restrictions on these flows are also on the rise. Privacy, securit...

Competition Policy in a Globalized, Digitalized Economy

Digitalization and online platforms provide numerous benefits to firms and consumers, including increased choice and economic opportunity, but they can also raise market concentration and...

Corporate Tax, Digitalization and Globalization

Digitalization enables companies to interact with users and the economy of a country without establishing a physical presence there. Unique, intangible assets make it difficult to apply t...

Africa E-commerce Agenda: Roadmap for Action

E-commerce in Africa is well underway, but it has potential to grow, creating new jobs and driving sustainable development. E-commerce stakeholders from within and beyond the continent ha...

Windows of Opportunity: Facilitating Trade with Blockchain Technology

Trade costs – the costs of moving cargo from one country to another – are a leading constraint for companies wanting to engage in trade. The development of trade single windows, a one-sto...

The Global Governance of Online Consumer Protection and E-commerce

Global Value Chain Policy Series: Taxation

This paper highlights the disconnect between the modern global economy and an outdated international tax framework and provides some suggestions for how tax policy could better promote su...

Global Value Chain Policy Series: Competition

Anti-competitive behaviour can affect the smooth functioning of global value chains (GVCs) in different ways and at various stages. The international nature of production networks, multin...

Global Value Chain Policy Series: Services

With new data revealing the extent of services’ contribution to global value chains, there has been greater policy interest in what drives services competitiveness. This paper traces the ...

Global Value Chain Policy Series: Investment

Given the important role of multinational enterprises (MNEs), attracting foreign direct investment is a key concern for countries keen to join value chains. This paper explains why increa...

Global Value Chain Policy Series: Environment

This paper examines two questions that arise at the intersection of environmental sustainability and global value chains. The first relates to trade and other barriers to the smooth funct...

Global Value Chain Policy Series: Introduction

The Global Value Chain Policy Series was launched in 2018 by the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of International Trade and Investment. It consists of brief...

Addressing E-Payment Challenges in Global E-Commerce

Technology has altered the way consumers interact with payment systems. The Internet, digitization, shifting consumer preferences and, in some cases, regulatory reform have accelerated th...

Paperless Trading: How Does It Impact the Trade System?

Paperless trade refers to the digitization of information flows required to support goods and services crossing borders. Transforming what was traditionally a paper-based documentation sy...

Making Deals in Cyberspace: What’s the Problem?

This White Paper aims to build the knowledge of current e-transaction and e-signature rules. It evaluates how these apply in national and international commercial contexts, and bridges pe...

The Role of Law and Regulation in International Trade Finance: the Case of Correspondent Banking

This white paper will present a view of legal and regulatory structures in the context of trade financing, using the recent example of correspondent banking as a case study that highlight...

The Global Enabling Trade Report 2016

Co-published by the World Economic Forum and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, the Report features the Enabling Trade Index, which evaluates 136 economies based on their capaci...

The E15 Initiative: Strengthening the Global Trade and Investment System in the 21st Century

World trade has experienced a significant slowdown since the 2008 financial crisis. Over this period, the global ratio of trade expansion to income growth has halved. An effective global ...