Trade and the Post - 2015 Development Agenda

Abstract

Trade can and should play an important role in making progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This includes trade and investment in services, as realizing many of the goals is conditional on improved performance of services sectors in developing countries. The global environment for trade and investment is likely to be more challenging for low-income countries in the coming decade than it was in the 1990s and 2000s, calling for a sustained effort by governments to reduce trade costs, pursuit of policy reforms to support trade in services, and a greater focus of aid for trade on trade cost reduction and services trade facilitation.