Islamabad
Global trade has contributed to growth and poverty reduction in the past three decades, but gains from trade can be more inclusive, the World Bank said.
Spreading the benefits of trade more widely, within and between countries, can play a key role as the world seeks to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reversed years of poverty reduction.
“There is no question that the rise in trade over the past 30 years has helped dramatically reduce global poverty, but the benefits were not shared equally,” said Mari Pangestu, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships.
“Trade plays a vital role in pandemic response, ensuring food and medicine can cross borders freely and vaccines are distributed where they are needed.
Better policies are needed to make trade more inclusive, as we work to build back better and set a path toward green, resilient and inclusive development.”
Policy-makers in developing countries can use the new findings, data, and approaches in the report to better understand the distributional effects of trade, monitor the implementation of policies to address them, and coordinate responses across governments.
The rapid increase in global trade has been a key engine of growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.
From 1990 to 2017, global poverty fell from 36 percent to 9 percent as developing countries increased their share of global exports from 16 percent to 30 percent. —TLTP
