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Global growth is volatile and uneven, with trade and investment patterns undergoing rapid change.
We inform business and policy action towards dynamic, inclusive and sustainable trade and investment. We drive growth and development.
Solutions accelerator
The Forum's Trade and Investment Platform accelerates reform through a proven mobilization process to advance recovery, growth and sustainable development.
From the G20 Ministers and CEOs in our leadership groups to the customs officials and SME managers in our working communities, we take a multi-stakeholder approach to diagnosing problems, designing solutions and measuring impact. We have many projects and regional engagement across four thematic areas including ensuring open and stable commerce; facilitating flows of goods, services and investment; supporting sustainable and equitable value chains; and growing cross-border businesses.
Learn more about our projects and research below.
Write to us to get engaged.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) can play an important role in delivering the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Investment flows help advance a nation’s development by bringing capi...
The World Economic Forum hosts the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation with the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in fu...
Overview How can we ensure technology drives innovative, inclusive, efficient and responsible trade growth in the digital era? The Fourth Industrial Revolution – associated with rapid tec...
How should policy-makers and companies react and plan in this rapidly changing landscape while ensuring technologies advance equality and inclusion in international trade?With the rise of...
International investment is crucial to realizing the intertwined goals of sustainable development and corporate growth. The evidence shows that foreign direct investment (FDI) can generat...
While trade and globalization have created jobs, lifted incomes and improved working conditions in some contexts, they have left behind or exploited workers in others. How can trade polic...
ASEAN is the fastest growing Internet market in the world. With 125,000 new users coming onto the Internet every day, the ASEAN digital economy is projected to grow significantly, adding ...
Bans on exports of medical supplies and foodstuffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic risk humanitarian tragedy. Yet global trade and investment governance reform, already under acute strain from...
Public and private actors are showing great interest in green trade topics. The urgency of environmental challenges is driving a re-think of our production and consumption networks. Suppl...
The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation is a public-private partnership for trade-led growth, supporting governments in developing and least-developed countries in implementing the Wor...
This report, written in collaboration with Sea, calls for a targeted and multistakeholder approach to tackling barriers to financial inclusion for the ASEAN region’s digital generation. T...
By making climate-friendly technologies more readily available, trade can support climate action, and governments must work together to encourage their uptake.
Digital payment ecosystems are the invisible infrastructure powering commerce, trade and people’s daily lives. With the onset of global COVID-19 pandemic the value of digital payments for...
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been met with unprecedented trade and other economic sanctions. Some members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have revoked Russia’s most-favoured-...
Supply chains are important levers for achieving sustainability goals and have gained increased corporate, governmental and civil society attention. This white paper charts regulatory dev...
A thriving, competitive range of digital payment methods readies countries to better connect to global trade in today's digital age. Yet the varied technical standards, laws and regulatio...
TradeTech adoption is moving fast, largely driven by the private sector. But leveraging technologies for trade requires more than innovation: trade policy must keep pace. The major challe...
There is disagreement among countries on how international rules should address the cross-border spillover effects of increased government intervention in national economies. As a result,...
Digitalization has prompted growing regulatory interest, including in the area of digital taxation. Many governments have proposed and implemented digital services taxes (DSTs), even as 1...
The urgency of the climate crisis demands that greater attention be given to the role of trade in accelerating emissions reductions and mitigating the effects of climate change while purs...
This White Paper on advancing data flow governance in the Asia-Pacific region explores international and regional best practices in four domestic contexts. In particular, the paper summar...
TradeTech, or the set of technologies and innovations that enable trade to be more efficient, inclusive, and equitable, is fundamental to harnessing the innovations of the Fourth Industri...
Papua New Guinea has embraced growth in the digital economy and targeted e-commerce as part of its development strategy. Making “Harnessing Inclusive Opportunities, Embracing Digital Futu...
Digital trade in Asia had been booming even before the COVID-19 pandemic that drove large numbers of firms and consumers online. The region has also been at the forefront of digital trade...
FDI brings not only capital but also knowledge and technology. Attracting digital FDI can help economies and companies boost digital capabilities, but reflecting the fact that this is a n...
Electronics are a critical part of our lives and even more so in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, however, too many electronics wind up in the environment, are recycle...
Plastic pollution has become a pressing challenge with damaging effects on human health and environmental well-being. Many governments are seeking ways to decrease single-use plastics and...
Powered by data flows, digitalization has become crucial for the seamless functioning of economies and societies. Countries, however, can have concerns that once data moves abroad it will...
The rapid expansion of access to digital payments has made it possible for consumers to conveniently make purchases for goods and services from merchants around the world. The current COV...
As governments and businesses grapple with the effects of COVID-19, other global challenges remain. Once the immediate crisis abates, countries must intensify environmental action to tack...
In January 2019, the Global Future Council on International Trade and Investment outlined four potential scenarios for the future of global trade and investment. This briefing paper takes...
Geopolitical tensions have shaken business confidence, leading to decreased global investment flows. This briefing paper by the Global Future Council on International Trade and Investment...
The digital economy is facing two divergent trends. Information is moving across borders at record volumes, yet domestic restrictions on these flows are also on the rise. Privacy, securit...
Digitalization and online platforms provide numerous benefits to firms and consumers, including increased choice and economic opportunity, but they can also raise market concentration and...
Digitalization enables companies to interact with users and the economy of a country without establishing a physical presence there. Unique, intangible assets make it difficult to apply t...
E-commerce in Africa is well underway, but it has potential to grow, creating new jobs and driving sustainable development. E-commerce stakeholders from within and beyond the continent ha...
Trade costs – the costs of moving cargo from one country to another – are a leading constraint for companies wanting to engage in trade. The development of trade single windows, a one-sto...
This paper highlights the disconnect between the modern global economy and an outdated international tax framework and provides some suggestions for how tax policy could better promote su...
Anti-competitive behaviour can affect the smooth functioning of global value chains (GVCs) in different ways and at various stages. The international nature of production networks, multin...
With new data revealing the extent of services’ contribution to global value chains, there has been greater policy interest in what drives services competitiveness. This paper traces the ...
Given the important role of multinational enterprises (MNEs), attracting foreign direct investment is a key concern for countries keen to join value chains. This paper explains why increa...
This paper examines two questions that arise at the intersection of environmental sustainability and global value chains. The first relates to trade and other barriers to the smooth funct...
The Global Value Chain Policy Series was launched in 2018 by the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of International Trade and Investment. It consists of brief...
Technology has altered the way consumers interact with payment systems. The Internet, digitization, shifting consumer preferences and, in some cases, regulatory reform have accelerated th...
Paperless trade refers to the digitization of information flows required to support goods and services crossing borders. Transforming what was traditionally a paper-based documentation sy...
This White Paper aims to build the knowledge of current e-transaction and e-signature rules. It evaluates how these apply in national and international commercial contexts, and bridges pe...
This white paper will present a view of legal and regulatory structures in the context of trade financing, using the recent example of correspondent banking as a case study that highlight...
Co-published by the World Economic Forum and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, the Report features the Enabling Trade Index, which evaluates 136 economies based on their capaci...
World trade has experienced a significant slowdown since the 2008 financial crisis. Over this period, the global ratio of trade expansion to income growth has halved. An effective global ...
