South Africa and the other BRICS nations need jobs, growth and greater competitiveness. Europe needs jobs, growth and greater competitiveness. The US needs much the same. Better trading terms are a key way to secure these goals for businesses and consumers. They can act too through a multiplier effect in a complex set of value chains and SME supply systems.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) plays a key role in the adjudication of multilateral trade agreements and their implementation and enforcement, but has been left playing a less dynamic role in recent years – with the failure so far of the Doha Round – in the negotiation of major multilateral deals. It secured the Bali trade facilitation deal recently with helpful customs progress, but even that was a somewhat tortuous process.
This has been excerpted from a 2 June 2015 article by Sir Michael Rake, Chairman, BT Group; Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa and is available in its entirety at:
https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/06/how-can-we-reinvigorate-global-trade/