Trade is often discussed in terms of tariffs, agreements, or statistics. But at its core, trade is about something much simpler: solving problems.  

Every day, businesses, workers, and entrepreneurs face obstacles. A company struggles to navigate complex regulations. A small business cannot reach customers beyond its borders. A woman entrepreneur lacks access to the networks and scale needed to grow. A digital exporter encounters barriers to moving data or delivering services across markets. Consumers and businesses worry whether online transactions can be trusted.

Session 3Trade and Frontier Technologies: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence and Others for Inclusive Growth

Examine how AI and emerging technologies transform trade flows and discuss policy frameworks needed for inclusive growth.

Session 2 How Is Digital Trade Governed? AI, Data, and Cross-Border Regulation

Digital trade is shaping all trade. As data, digital services, and AI are core inputs to production, rules governing the digital economy have cross-border effects. Fragmented digital regulation risks raising compliance costs, discouraging investment, and widening digital divides, particularly for SMEs and smaller economies.

Session 1: Framing Digital Trade: The Evolving Landscape of Global (e-)Commerce and Digital Policy Trends

Explore how digitalization is reshaping trade rules and institutions, and discuss how developing countries can leverage digital trade opportunities, especially for SMEs and women-led enterprises. 

This edition captures a busy summer for TradeExperettes, with a strong presence at the WTO Public Forum and a rich line-up of events for our members.

In Geneva, we launched our landmark Ten Trade on Win annual report in an Ambassadors’ lounge conversation, hosted a session on digital trade’s transformative potential, and gathered members for a networking breakfast that kick-started the policy season.

While policymakers today debate the future of trade policy, the real story lies in the proven wins quietly shaping economies and improving lives worldwide. This series showcases ten compelling wins in international trade that demonstrate the success of crossborder commerce and open trade policies.

The foundations of modern trade rest on key enablers that make global commerce possible. Containerization revolutionized global trade by drastically reducing shipping costs, increasing efficiency, and enabling businesses worldwide—including those in small and developing economies—to access global markets.

The year 2024 marks a global election cycle with over 80 countries, representing more than half of the world’s population casting their votes. In these uncertain times, the world finds itself confronted by a state of “polycrisis”—a complex web of interconnected global challenges that transcends borders. Geopolitics and international trade have a critical role to play in driving solutions to these crises. 

The E-commerce Moratorium is a 25-year-old trade policy that prohibits the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions, which was agreed to and regularly renewed by the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). During the last WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), the continuation of this policy was in doubt. A lengthy debate resulted in its conditional renewal until the upcoming Ministerial Conference (MC13) that will take place in Abu Dhabi, in February 2024. 

The linkages between trade and environment are both complex and diverse. While trade has enabled the rapid development of technological advances to help governments achieve their environmental goals, the deployment of those innovations is not always financially accessible or produced at the scale needed to address urgent challenges. As a result, nations face persistent obstacles to tackling environmental degradation in all of its forms.

Ten “Quick Wins” for Digital Trade — a TradeExperettes report to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on digital trade at the World Trade Organization.

Ten “Quick Wins” for More Equitable Trade — a TradeExperettes report to contribute to the discussion on trade and gender at the World Trade Organization.

Thought-leaders from the TradeExperettes, a new organisation for women trade experts from around the world, feature in a panel discussion today on how to achieve greater diversity in the trade conversation, as part of The Economist Global Trade Virtual Week.

Expertise, engagement and empowerment are the founding principles of the TradeExperettes, a community of women trade experts from around the world that will be launched at The Economist Global Trade Virtual Week on 29 June.

2020 has been an extraordinary year in many ways. For the TradeExperettes, it has been the best of times and the worst of times – both in terms of the dramatic effects we have seen on trade policy and practice throughout the year, but also for the TradeExperettes network and its members.

Kellie Kemock interviews TradeExperettes founder and “lead instigator” Hanna Norberg.