WTO Deputy Director-General Says Trade Essential to Pandemic Recovery

World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard focused on the positive in her keynote speech to the American Association of Exporters and Importers, even as she recognized the strain the COVID-19 pandemic put on trade and the rise in protectionism in recent years.

Ellard, who was the chief trade counsel for Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee for decades before heading to Geneva, told the online conference June 29 that while overall trade contracted by 8% during the pandemic, trade in medical goods increased by 16% and trade in protective gear rose by 31%. She noted that vaccines require inputs from around the world, and so trade is essential to conquering the pandemic. She said the WTO can help by arriving at a pragmatic solution to the question of intellectual property rights protection for the vaccines, and praised the "active and healthy debate" on the IPR waiver, also known as a TRIPS waiver. But she said that any workable solution has to go beyond the question of patents, and cover production and distribution bottlenecks.

She said initial shortages caused some to say the just-in-time philosophy for supply chains and inventory "needed to be replaced with just-in-case," but that the predicted shortages of consumer products and food have not been as severe as expected. "Over a year later the global trading system looks more resilient than many expected," she said.

Still, she said, the fact that wealthy countries are coming out of the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic while the "developing world remains mired in the doldrums" presents a challenge to the WTO, as does the inequality revealed within countries. "We need to ensure the pandemic does not derail hard-won development gains," she said.

Ellard said the Trade Facilitation Agreement at the WTO is playing an outsize role in the economic recovery, and that countries that more rapidly implemented the TFA were more resilient, despite COVID-19-related lockdowns. "In contrast, countries that have been slower to automate and digitalize their customs ... are faring less well."

She told AAEI members that if they value the WTO, they should make the case to U.S. decision-makers "that it’s relevant and that it’s worth improving and modernizing."