OREANDA-NEWS. Alexey Mordashov, co-chairman of the B20 Trade Task Force, outlined the three key focus areas for the G20 sherpas.

“Promoting international trade and ensuring that supply chains can continue to evolve efficiently are of the issues of greatest importance and should remain one of the core items of the G20 agenda,” — Alexey Mordashov emphasized. — Myths that trade has a negative impact on local jobs are counterproductive and hinder the development of the world economy. Experience of recent decades has shown that those countries in which trade barriers are lower and which are actively engaged in the international trade processes have higher growth rate."

Concerning the fight against protectionism, the G20 should explore ways to reverse protectionist measures and ensure full respect for the existing multilateral trade commitments.The Task Force called for a redoubling of efforts to ensure protectionism does not creep back into global trade. The monitoring system itself should be further extended and strengthened to address the full scope of protectionist measures, including the non-tariff ones.

“The G20 has played an important role in inhibiting protectionism,” — Mr. Mordashov admitted. — “Generally, the world remains open for trade. We think it is vital to continue our efforts in this direction, and the extension of the WTO mandate on protectionism measures monitoring after 2014 could be a significant practical step forward.”

To achieve progress in the sphere of trade facilitation, the G20 governments should urge all parties to finalize the wording of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement by the G20 Summit in September, for the final agreement to be concluded at the Bali WTO Ministerial in December.

“This agreement covers the removal of administrative barriers to trade, and enhancing the work of custom and other authorities engaged in goods and services cross-border logistics,” — The Business 20 Taskforce Co-Chair explained. — “Currently, as suggested by the OECD estimates, international trade losses due to demurrage resulting from administrative delays are as high as 4%.”

Multilateral trade agreements are the most effective way to contribute to economic growth. The challenge is to ensure that PTAs pave the way for broader trade liberalization, rather than become obstacles to it.

To address this challenge, the Task Force recommended the G20 should encourage the WTO to take a leadership role in developing best practices and guiding the design of PTAs to make them compatible with and complementary to WTO rules.