A key issue addressed at the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires this week was the participation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the WTO agenda and international trade.
The conference acknowledged that MSMEs perform a significant role in both member states’ national economies and global economic growth, but they also face additional regulatory barriers and high transaction costs when participating in international trade, especially companies from the least-developed nations.
A new work program is to be established under the WTO General Council to leverage the power of MSMEs and work with other relevant international organizations to build a more inclusive trade system.
In August, the WTO partnered with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to launch an “ICC-WTO Small Business Champions” initiative, encouraging smaller companies to integrate into international markets.
This new initiative is calling for innovative and practical proposals from small enterprises or private-sector associations. A successful proposal should help MSMEs to access critical information, raise business skills and diversify export markets. The WTO and the ICC are to provide their shared platform and resources to make the selected proposals a reality.
So far, three successful proposals have been jointly announced by the WTO Secretariat and the ICC. All three projects highlight the role of digital technologies to promote e-commerce and capacity building among MSMEs, such as the “World Net for Small Businesses” and the “Global SMEs Launchpad,” and illustrate an important global pattern for next-generation trade.
This WTO-ICC proposal competition offers a valuable opportunity for ambitious Taiwanese entrepreneurs to demonstrate their creativity and connect with top-notch international business networks, as progress in government-led negotiations has been relatively slow in almost all recent regional and bilateral trade agreements.
In 2010, the Ministry of Economic Affairs set up a Green Trade Project Office to work with Taiwanese companies that design, manufacture and deliver “green” products and technologies to overseas markets.
This “green” trade project focuses on clearly targeted areas, such as energy conservation, resource recycling and low-carbon transportation, and has assisted several Taiwanese firms to enhance “green” competitiveness and gain international recognition, including one of the world’s most prestigious campaigns: The Green World Awards.
Taiwan is a leader in APEC’s Online-to-Offline (O2O) Initiative. The O2O Forum, proposed by Taiwan, with co-sponsors the Philippines and Malaysia, aims to enhance digital competitiveness and resilience for start-ups and small enterprises. A cross-border platform was also established for young entrepreneurs in the APEC region to seize new opportunities — such as O2O business models — and respond to new challenges — such as cyberthreats.
Based on these fundamental achievements and solid institutional settings, the nation’s MSMEs and relevant private sector associations are well-positioned to submit compelling proposals to the “ICC-WTO Small Business Champions” initiative, especially in the fields of “green” trade and digital economy.
The proposal brainstorming process can guide Taiwanese in reviewing and improving domestic regulatory frameworks for promoting entrepreneurship, trade and digital innovation — such as the Act for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises and Start-ups (中小及新創企業發展條例) and the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例).
Yang Chung-han is an honorary legal counsel for the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Small and Medium Enterprise Administration.
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