Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/90710 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
WTO Staff Working Paper No. ERSD-2013-12
Publisher: 
World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva
Abstract: 
Notwithstanding some progress in market and product diversification - including services - LDCs remain particularly vulnerable to external shocks. With the exception of 2006-2008, the LDCs as a group have systematically recorded a trade deficit. The 2008-2009 global crisis and the bumpy recovery which followed illustrate the volatility of the recent trends. In such a perspective, renewed efforts towards extensive product diversification are called for. Fostering diversification has been supported for many years by preferential market access to developed countries; more recently, emerging countries have also been granting such preferences to LDCs products. Preferential market access remains relevant, but is not sufficient to improve the supply-side capabilities. The new business model related to global value chains (GVC) offers new opportunities to LDCs for export diversification. But GVC participation cannot materialize without a proper trade environment. Some of the main obstacles for joining GVCs are the high transaction costs in importing the necessary inputs and exporting the processed goods. Active trade facilitation programmes, such as those identified during the Fourth Global Review of Aid for Trade in July 2013 offer new options to LDCs for joining GVCs. For those LDCs that have already been able to join these global production network, up-grading towards higher value-added activities requires more encompassing horizontal policies.
Subjects: 
Least developed countries
trade and development
2008-2009 global crisis
preferential market access
global value chains
trade facilitation
JEL: 
F13
F14
F63
O19
O24
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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