WTO, IMF and World Bank leaders stress vital role of trade in reducing poverty

Director-General Roberto Azevêdo joined with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva on 10 April to argue for renewed efforts to leverage trade as a force to reduce poverty.

DG Azevêdo argued that the current trade tensions could undermine recent progress in tackling poverty.

“Trade has helped to fuel unprecedented growth and development around the world. It has created opportunities for a billion people to lift themselves out of extreme poverty in our lifetimes. However, the current circumstances could put this progress at risk, undercutting the potential of trade to keep changing people’s lives. Clearly, we cannot afford to go down this path. So we’re doing everything we can to ease tensions and find a positive path forward – including by strengthening the multilateral trading system. Despite the current situation, we cannot lose focus on the urgent need to tackle poverty and to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. We know that the poorest still face numerous challenges in joining global trade flows. We need to find ways to overcome these challenges and ensure that trade is playing its full role here. I look forward to further developing the partnership between the IMF, World Bank and the WTO to that end.”

The three leaders were speaking at a joint WTO-IMF-World Bank event in Washington DC titled “Beyond Uncertainty: Leveraging Trade to Reduce Poverty”, held alongside the World Bank-IMF Spring meetings.

Original source: WTO
Published on 10 April 2019