The Global Enabling Trade Report 2016 Home

  • These are the world’s most and least powerful passports

    Wednesday 20th of October 2021

    Some passports afford their bearers more freedom than others. In 2021, Japan and Singapore were named the countries with the world’s most powerful passports by the Henley Passport Index. Holders of these passports have the unbeatable luxury of being able to enter 192 countries without applying for and receiving a visa beforehand. South Korea (not pictured) and Germany follow with visa-free travel to 190 jurisdictions.

  • This is how COVID-19 has disrupted global supply chains

    Monday 18th of October 2021

    As the coronavirus crisis is wearing off in many parts of the world, supply chain troubles are increasing once more for many companies, mainly concerning the U.S. and the Eurozone. Components of the International Monetary Fund’s purchasing managers’ index show how supply chain disruptions have developed during the pandemic, spiking in early 2020 and picking back up over the course of 2021 as the new normal causes all types of goods to become more sought amid a more permanent reopening. The supply chains in China and emerging markets, on the other hand, are less affected.

  • Trade: 5 things to know about international trade this October

    Wednesday 13th of October 2021

    CEOs from all continents have signed up to a multistakeholder call for inclusive action at and beyond the WTO Ministerial starting next month. They feel agreements should be reached on trade and health, e-commerce, environment, and investment. Also that more be done to implement past agreements. Longer term, they’d like progress towards a level playing field and fixing the multilateral system.

  • Petroleum products now make up less than half of all OPEC exports, research shows

    Thursday 7th of October 2021

    The member states of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC, are less reliant on exports of oil and other petroleum products than ever before. According to the latest OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin, OPEC members have further diversified their export portfolio in recent years, with petroleum products making up only 43 percent of OPEC exports in 2020.

  • These 3 charts show how international trade works – and the current state it’s in

    Monday 4th of October 2021

    International trade is the lifeblood of the world economy, providing the goods and services that are traded across borders to bring wealth and prosperity to nations.

  • We must reform trade to build a sustainable, inclusive global recovery

    Monday 4th of October 2021

    Trade policy needs an urgent update.

  • Our economy relies on shipping containers. This is what happens when they’re ‘stuck in the mud’

    Friday 1st of October 2021

    Take a look around you.

  • Trade for tomorrow: A collective call to action to make trade work for all

    Thursday 30th of September 2021

    We believe trade and investment support human development and that a global recovery can be built upon a trade recovery. Governments must creatively re-engage on trade reform and refrain from protectionism.

  • These 4 economy-wide variables can help countries diversify exports

    Tuesday 28th of September 2021

    Four economy-wide factors—governance, education, infrastructure, and trade policy—relate closely to more varied and complex exports across countries

  • This is how COVID-19 and Brexit are reshaping Europe’s trading landscape

    Tuesday 21st of September 2021

    Europe’s trading landscape is being reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit.

  • Stakeholder Capitalism: over 50 companies adopt ESG reporting metrics

    Tuesday 21st of September 2021

    A coalition of over 50 companies have drawn from existing frameworks and co-created a comprehensive set of metrics that highlight the need for consistent ESG reporting.

  • To address inequalities we need a new vision for trade

    Tuesday 21st of September 2021

    Divides and discrimination within countries along the lines of race, ethnicity, gender and Indigenous identity have resulted in longstanding social, economic and political challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has further laid bare the stark inequalities among societal groups.

  • How can we deliver a climate-focused trade agenda?

    Monday 20th of September 2021

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report once again focused international attention on the acute urgency of climate action. Combatting climate change at the pace necessary to avert catastrophic impacts on the planet and societies requires significant shifts in both trade and production worldwide.

  • How emerging economies can overcome the private sector’s risk perception

    Sunday 19th of September 2021

    There is an ever-increasing urgency to address the barriers limiting private sector capital flowing at scale to achieve the sizeable UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing and emerging economies. One such barrier is the risk perception associated with investing in emerging markets, which has historically been addressed on a project-by-project basis. This remains one of the longstanding, severely limiting opportunities for a sustainable post-COVID economic recovery.

  • 6 issues that will define the future of capital markets

    Wednesday 8th of September 2021

    In the wake of the pandemic and an unequal economic recovery, several interrelated forces are transforming the way global capital markets work. As the world’s economies rebound, market participants broadly recognize a need for reforms to the established modus operandi, to build resilience, to remain competitive in the face of innovation, and to retain their customers’ trust.

  • Sustainability is the CFO’s new best friend. Here’s why

    Monday 30th of August 2021

    A good chief finance officer has always focused on what affects the bottom line. But where just a few years ago this would never have included sustainability, today it is a must. Not only are demands growing from all sides for companies to take more action to help secure a better future, but evidence increasingly shows that those who commit to sustainability targets outperform those that do not.

  • Asian countries make up 40% of the world’s top 10 video gaming markets

    Tuesday 24th of August 2021

    The top 10 of the world’s biggest markets for video games feature four Asian countries, Mexico and Russia, leaving space for the U.S. and only three European countries. The data from the Statista Digital Market Outlook shows that video gaming is in fact a hugely popular and profitable industry around the world, with a global revenue of $154.6 billion projected for 2021.

  • Why foreign direct investment is key to Africa’s sustainable recovery

    Thursday 19th of August 2021

    The global economic downturn following COVID-19 coupled with measures employed by African governments to curb the spread of the pandemic have resulted in substantial declines in foreign direct investment (FDI) and deep economic contractions.

  • Lessons for COVID: How natural disasters reshape supply chains

    Thursday 19th of August 2021

    COVID-19 has disrupted global value chains (GVCs). Some observers expect firms to respond by abandoning their pursuit of lower production costs in favour of building stronger resilience in production – by reshoring, nearshoring, and/or diversifying sources of production (e.g. Javorcik 2020, Kilic and Marin 2020, Lund et al. 2020, UNCTAD 2020). In contrast, others have argued that the same technological and institutional factors that have underpinned the international fragmentation of production in the past decades would make a retrenchment of GVCs post-COVID-19 unlikely, unless there is a radical change in the policy environment (Antràs 2021, Baldwin 2020).

  • This is what people think about trade and globalization

    Thursday 19th of August 2021

    Most people think that expanding trade is a good thing, according to a recent Ipsos-World Economic Forum survey of adults in 25 countries around the world.

  • What does the IPCC climate change report mean for trade?

    Thursday 12th of August 2021

    The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that temperatures are very likely to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming versus pre-industrial levels, by 2050. But what could this mean for global trade, trade finance and supply chains? Aside from sending a pretty strong warning to G7 ministers as they prepare for both Glasgow’s COP26 gathering in just three months and then the World Trade Organization’s twelfth ministerial conference (MC12), we will likely see many commitments for policymakers step-change how the world deals with climate change and cross-border trade.

  • How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected global trade? 

    Sunday 8th of August 2021

    The Covid pandemic has caused significant disruption to global trade. In 2020, global trade fell by 8.9%, the steepest drop since the global financial crisis.

  • An expert explains: How COVID-19 exposed the fragility of global supply chains

    Friday 30th of July 2021

    COVID-19 has laid bare many uncomfortable truths regarding society’s overall preparedness for low-probability but high-impact events, especially global ones. These range from issues pertaining exclusively to pandemic readiness (like our domestic capacity to produce personal protective equipment, ventilators, sanitizer and vaccines) to matters that are considerably less esoteric, like the ability of global supply chains to operate regardless of the various stresses put upon them.

  • Trade restrictions are delaying the COVID response. The WTO must act

    Thursday 29th of July 2021

    When World Trade Organization (WTO) members meet in Geneva in November, they must do more than agree a high-level trade and health declaration. They should take concrete action to eliminate the trade-distorting measures affecting global value chains for the vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics needed to fight the pandemic. Measures such as tariffs and export restrictions continue to create unnecessary costs in these value chains, undermining the COVID-19 response and setting back efforts to extend manufacturing capacity. Ministers should launch new talks to address these trade barriers.

  • The top 100 companies of the world: the US vs everyone else

    Tuesday 27th of July 2021

    When it comes to breaking down the top 100 companies of the world, the United States still commands the largest slice of the pie.

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