Making Trade an Engine of Growth for All

Abstract

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, addressed the topic of trade as an engine of growth. Advanced markets are experiencing low growth and in emerging markets, growth rates have fallen by almost 1 percentage point since 2013. This is not just about numbers, these economic developments are limiting opportunities for billions of people around the world, and making it harder to achieve the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. One of the drivers of this low growth pattern is the decrease in trade growth. Global trade has slowed from an average yearly growth of 7 percent before the financial crisis to less than 3 percent today. Projections for 2016 indicate an even further slowdown. All this comes at a time when we need more cooperation, greater economic integration and stronger partnerships than ever before for the world economy to continue to grow in a sustainable way. We must respond with a push for lower trade costs, support for multilateral trade negotiations, resist protectionism, and support trade policy reform and greater global trade integration.