ITC publications bring the business voice to sustainable trade, with a focus on developing countries. We offer guidance for trade policymakers, business support organizations and small firms. Our reports offer insights to make trade more inclusive, green, digital and competitive.
The design of governance structure of social and environmental sustainability standards determines how accessible they are to producers in developing countries.The increase in consumer demand for sustainable trade has given rise to a growing array of social and environmental standards. This joint...
The first global data report on fast-growing voluntary sustainability standards outlines the share of bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry, palm oil, soybeans, cane sugar and tea in 14 major standards. The report is based on a partnership between the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture...
Jointly published by ITC, WTO and UNCTAD annually, this report has tariff-based market access conditions for goods, imposed by the 161 WTO members plus other countries and territories. The first part presents aggregated product statistics. The second part covers tariffs imposed and faced by each...
World Tariff Profiles 2014 — a joint publication of the WTO, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) — provides comprehensive tariff information on all WTO members and a number of other countries where data is available. It is the only...
Understanding the global demand for environmental goods and services can unlock new export opportunities for developing country SMEs. This study provides a market overview of this complex sector, which reached an estimated US$ 866 billion in 2011, and is expected to rise to US$ 1.9 trillion by 2020...
Streamlining government procedures, improving transport maintenance and IT infrastructure, and better dissemination of trade-related information are cited as keys to improving Kenya’s export performance, in a new ITC country study on non-tariff measures. Two-thirds of companies surveyed in...
Rwandan exporters face onerous standards imposed by private clients in addition to government requirements, an ITC survey reveals. Fair Trade certificates demanded by clients in the European Union, especially for coffee and tea, are bringing costs and delays that seriously hinder Rwandan exporters,...
Mauritian exporters claim to be less affected by trade barriers than many other countries that have participated in the ITC business surveys on non-tariff measures. Among the 400 Mauritian firms surveyed, 27% of exporters were adversely affected by non-tariff measures; 36% of importing firms...
Many trade obstacles can be dealt with at home, this report finds, regarding business concerns about non-tariff measures in Malawi. This ITC survey of exporters and importers in Malawi reveals that their main challenges to access markets abroad are twofold in relation to non-tariff...
Private sustainability standards can be an effective tool to foster sustainable development. This paper outlines conditions for sustainability and potential obstacles. Private sustainability standards can bring benefits to producers and the supply chain. This literature review analyses why the...
This paper aims to guide exporters of agricultural products through the process of product carbon footprinting so as to make it easier for them to understand the processes involved, improve their environmental performance and ultimately to reduce the costs for their business. This paper presents a...
Literature review of interdependencies between public and private standards. It focuses on how governments could engage with private standards to impact their legitimacy and significance in the market; provides examples of complementarities between public and private standards. Part three of a...
