Trade targets and the Agenda 2030

The SDGs reference trade policy and trade-related measures in a number of the specific goals:

ü Goal 2 (end hunger) includes a call to correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect.

ü Goal 5 (gender quality). Trade will create more opportunities for women’s employment and economic development. Jobs in export sectors tend to have better pay and conditions, moreover, they are an important job provider for women in developing countries.

ü Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth) calls on improving Aid for Trade support for developing countries, especially for LDCs, including through the Enhanced Integrated Framework for trade related technical assistance (EIF).

ü Goal 10 (reduce inequality) stresses the importance of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in accordance with WTO agreements.

ü Goal 14 (life below water). The Decision on Fisheries Subsidies taken by WTO members in December 2017 is a step forward in multilateral efforts to comply with SDG Target 14.6, committing members to prohibit subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, with special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries.

ü Goal 17 (strengthening the means of implementation and the global partnership for sustainable development) includes language on the importance of: a universal, rules-based, open, nondiscriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the WTO; significantly increasing developing countries’ exports, including doubling the share of LDCs by 2020; timely implementation of DFQF market access on a lasting basis for all LDCs and ensuring that preferential rules of origin are transparent, simple and contribute to facilitating market access; enhancing policy coherence for sustainable development; respecting each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development.

o Target 17.7 calls for the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favorable terms.

o Target 17.10 aims at promoting a “universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable” multilateral trading system under the WTO. Tariff barriers in international markets in general have been falling to quite a low level, although there is a significant variation across regions as well as product sectors. The existence of the multilateral trading system that Target 17.10 calls to promote must have been one of the key drivers for the lowering of tariffs.

o Target 17.12 calls for the timely implementation of duty-free, quota-free (DFQF) market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries (LDCs) in such a way that it contributes to facilitating market access for LDCs’ exports. The indicator that the IAEG-SDG suggest for this target is average tariffs faced by developing countries and LDCs (and small island developing States) by key sectors.

Possible solutions[4]

Reduce the distortionary effects of NTMs: a majority of NTMs are legitimate policy tools aiming at consumer protection and environmental sustainability in the importing country.

Reducing the trade distortionary effects of these measures needs to be achieved by:

· ensuring that regulatory framework of importing countries does not discriminate;

· ensuring that even in the absence of discrimination the measure is not more trade restrictive than necessary;

· ensuring that technical and financial assistance is available for developing country and LDC exporters to comply with regulatory requirements in importing countries, including with conformity assessment, and to participate effectively in the development of international standards;

· ensuring that the administrative procedures required to implement said measures are efficient and adequate.

Deepening the Multilateral Trading System to adjust to the changing realities of trade: this includes exploring steps to support micro, small and medium sized-enterprises, ecommerce, investment facilitation, product regulations and standards, and trade finance.

Policy action and capacity building for SMEs: trade potential, and thus growth potential, may hence be lost if trade policies do not provide for the identification and removal of trade barriers, allowing for the inclusion of SMEs into global value chains. At the same time, knowledge needs to be transferred to exporters and importers to strengthen the capacity of producers, exporters, policymakers and buyers, to participate in more sustainable and inclusive production and economic growth, e.g. through compliance with sustainability standards allowing to tap into new export opportunities.

  Data availability for progress monitoring: supplementary indicators (e.g. export diversification, level of processing of the products exported, preference utilization rates and even firm level information) will allow providing contextual data and enhancing our understanding of the backward and forward linkages among trade, sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Useful links

· https: //www.wto.org/english/res_e/res_e.htm;

· https: //unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/presspb2015d9_en.pdf;

· http: //sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/non-tariff-barriers-can-connect-trade-to-sustainable-development/;

· https: //journals.openedition.org/poldev/2149

· https: //www.tralac.org/images/docs/9568/trade-and-the-sdgs-making-means-of-implementation-a-reality-commonwealth-trade-hot-topics-april-2016.pdf;

· http: //www.tradeforum.org/article/trade-and-the-challenges-of-sustainable-development/;

· https: //www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/Energy, %20Environment%20and%20Development/dec05wto.pdf.

· https: //www.ictsd.org/opinion/the-trade-system;

· https: //financialtribune.com/articles/world-economy/68075/protectionist-policies-a-threat-to-development-goals;

· https: //www.un.org/press/en/2017/ecosoc6838.doc.htm;

· https: //www.economicshelp.org/trade2/benefits_free_trade/;

· https: //www.ictsd.org/opinion/removing-trade-barriers-on-clean-energy-technologies-to-advance-the-sdgs

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