Advances in technology driven by the digital revolution have fundamentally changed international trade flows over the past several decades. In the goods sector, a consumer can with a few clicks of the mouse identify and purchase a product produced thousands of miles away. In the services sector, new digital technologies allow a Finnish software engineer living in Sri Lanka to provide real time services to a client in Singapore.
These new digital technologies offer great opportunities, including for developing countries that seek to integrate themselves into global value chains. But they also present significant challenges. Is the multilateral trading system sufficiently flexible to adjust to these new models? And will all nations be able to take full advantage of these new opportunities, regardless of their level of development?
WTO Deputy Director-General Angela Paolini Ellard will address the challenges and opportunities for the trading system presented by the digital revolution in her keynote speech kicking off the Global Trade Academy.
We thank VISA for their generous support of IIEL programming in 2023.