INF/MSME/R/39  
 
24 August 2023  
(23-5720) Page: 1/4 
  Original: English  
 
 
INFORMAL WORKING GROUP ON MSMES  
OPEN -ENDED MEETING OF 3 JULY 2023  
Summary of discussions  
The following communication, dated 24 August 2023, is being circulated at the request of the 
Coordinator of the Informal Working Group on MSMEs, Ambassador Matthew Wilson (Barbados).  
 
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1.1.  The Informal Working Group on MSMEs (MSME Group) met for its third open -ended meeting 
of the year on 3 July 2023. A total of 56 delegations1 attended the hybrid meeting, including 
10 non-working Gro up members.  
1.2.  The first meeting chaired by the new Coordinator had five presentations by external speakers 
and active discussion and experience -sharing by members on MSME trade -related subjects in 
advance of MC13. The Secretariat kicked off the meeting with a presentation of the revamped version 
of the Trade4MSMEs website and The Trade Game, which was launched on 27 June for MSME Day. 
The Coordinator noted that funds to cover hosting and maintenance were only available until end 
2025. Members who are interest ed in contributing to the long -term sustainability of the platform, 
including through financial support, and to translating the website and Trade Game into other 
languages, were invited by the Coordinator to reach out to him and the Secretariat.  
1.3.  The United  Kingdom submitted a communication for discussion titled "Supporting 
Women -Owned MSMEs" (INF/MSME/W/43). The document describes the challenges women -owned 
businesses face to access finance and includes recommendations for actions, such as sharing good 
practices and recommending support of the World Bank Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative 
(We-Fi). Following the presentation, the Coordinator suggested inviting the World Bank to present 
this initiative at a future meeting. Additionally, several MSME Group members took the floor to share 
their own experiences in supporting women -owned MSMEs including Barbados, Chile, the European 
Union, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation. The Coordinator suggested that given 
the interest in further exploring programmes for supporting women -owned and led businesses to 
access finance, there was merit in the MSME Group collating country experiences into a compendium. 
Members endorsed this suggestion.  
1.4.  MSME Group members gave a mandate to the Coordinator to prepare  a draft MC13 outcome 
document under his responsibility that would reiterate the importance of facilitating MSME trade and 
include some high -level commitments discussed within the MSME Group. The outcome document 
would also reference the work the Group has  been undertaking through the thematic discussions.  
 
1 Albania; Austria; Barbados; Brazil; Burkina Faso ; Canada; Chile; China; Costa Rica; Côte d'Ivoire; 
Czech Republic; European Union; France; Georgia; Germany; Guyana; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia ; Ireland; 
Japan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Republic of; Macao, China; Malaysia; Maldives ; Mauritania ; Mauritius ; 
Moldova , Republic of ; Morocco ; Myanmar; Netherlands; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Peru; Philippines; 
Russian  Federation; Samoa ; Saudi  Arabia , Kingdom of ; Singapore; Slovak Republic; South Africa ; Spain; 
Sweden; Swit zerland; Chinese Taipei; Thailand ; Trinidad and Tobago ; Türkiye; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; 
United  Kingdom; United States  of America ; Uruguay; Vanuatu ; and Viet Nam (non -MSME Group members are 
in italics) . INF/MSME/R/39  
 
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  1.5.  Discussion throughout the meeting returned to concrete deliverables for MC13 and the Group 
decided to work on compendiums of good practices on: 1) AEO programs and MSMEs; and 
2) financial inclusion of women -owned MSMEs following the UK proposal, to be developed jointly 
with the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender. Additionally, after a presentation of the 
revamped Trade4MSMEs website, the MSME Group further agreed to prepare two hand books as 
MC13 deliverables, one for Policymakers and the other for MSMEs. These handbooks will comprise 
the guides that were developed for the Trade4MSMEs website and which have been reviewed by the 
Group.  
1.6.  Presentations were received from:  
• The World Custom s Organization (WCO) on their AEO SAFE Framework and the WCO's efforts 
to support MSME inclusion.  
• The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on their Digital Standards Initiative which aims 
to create an enabling regulatory environment and promote the use and alignment of global 
standards to promote paperless trade.  
• The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) on the value of 
digitizing trade documents, especially for MSMEs, and their ability to cut costs and time and 
facilitate a ccess to finance.  
• The World Trade Board on their recent Financial Inclusion in Trade Roadmap and five action 
points to align regulatory infrastructure and increase MSME access to trade finance.  
• The International Trade Centre (ITC) on their Alliances for Ac tion program to support 
sustainable agriculture by smallholder farmers through market development, south -south 
collaboration between farmer organizations, and access to finance.  
1.7.  Uruguayan officials from capital who joined the meeting to share their experie nce of integrating 
MSMEs within their national AEO program.  
1.8.  Two of the three 2023 ICC -ITC-MSME Group Small Business Champions, COPROGENY from 
Cameroon and Divasity.com from Nigeria, were able to join the MSME Group meeting to present 
their winning proposal s to the members.  
1.9.  The Coordinator informed the Group that he had discussed the idea of a joint workshop and 
solutions lab on the circular economy, women -led MSMEs and trade with the co -conveners of the 
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender and Trade a nd Environmental Sustainability 
Structured Discussions (TESSD). The event will take place in September. He also suggested inviting 
the OECD to the next meeting to present on their declaration aimed at boosting policies for small 
businesses to build a more resilient, green and digital world economy as well as on their 
recently -published paper "Managing Shocks and Transitions – Future -Proofing SME and 
Entrepreneurship Policies".  
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  INF/MSME/R/39  
 
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  ANNEX  
PRESENTATION SUMMARIES  
1  THE AUTHORIZED ECONOMIC OPERATOR AND THE SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE, 
WCO  
1.1.  The World Customs Organization (WCO) presented the SAFE framework of standards to secure 
and facilitate global trade. Six standards of the framework are relevant for MSME inclusion and 
centre on the "customs – busin ess partnership", including through standards and criteria for national 
Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Programmes such as demonstrated compliance, commercial 
record management and security. AEO Programmes have a long list of benefits for customs offici als 
and business users alike, including expedited cargo release and transit; special measures during 
periods of trade disruption; or access to information. These benefits can aid businesses of every 
size, but are sometimes misunderstood as being only relev ant for large businesses with significant 
trade volumes. Although requirements, like shipment security, need to be maintained, AEO 
programmes can consider equally effective processes that are more accessible for smaller businesses 
with relatively less reso urces, such as equating a locked storage area for security with more 
expensive continuous -video monitoring. Additionally, the WCO is aware that the complexity of the 
process for becoming an AEO can potentially dissuade MSME participation. It was noted that  simpler 
processes are being developed to counter this and that certain WCO Members are running pilot 
programs to explore new options. The WCO is also exploring ways to collect information on AEO 
program participation by business size, including through it s annual survey of 85 WCO Members.  
2  DIGITAL TRADE FOR MSMES: MOMENTUM AND ACCELERATION, ICC  
2.1.  The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) presented on digital standards given that the 
lack of such standards can be the root cause of trade challenges for smalle r businesses. Presently, 
information and data required for trade transactions are often embedded in hard copy document 
formats, both paper and pdf, making digital access difficult; form filling prone to errors; and adding 
significant time requirements. On top of the hard copy document requirements, for the instances 
where information is digital, there are no universal standards for file type or format, making it 
difficult for systems to interoperate and extract required data. To address this issue, the ICC 
launched the Digital Standards Initiative (DSI) with the financial support of the Asian Development 
Bank and Enterprise Singapore, to develop a globally harmonized and digitalized trade environment 
by engaging both the public and private sectors. The World  Trade Organization and the World 
Customs Organization also participate in the governance board of the initiative. Underpinning this 
progress is the implementation of Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) -compliant 
systems. Ultimately, the I CC sees three areas where policymakers need to focus in order to support 
the digitalization of trade: 1) cohesive digital trade policy including implementation of the UNCITRAL 
MLETR; 2)sustained action towards standards adoption and awareness raising of th e importance of 
inter-operable protocols; and 3)continuous investment in capacity -building and education.  
3  ACCELERATING BENEFITS OF DIGITAL TRADE CONNECTIVITY THROUGH ALIGNMENT 
OF LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND INTEROPERABLE TOOLS, FIATA  
3.1.  The International Federation o f Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) presented its work to 
digitize documents used in the trade process for improved access to information. In addition to 
representing and training more than 40,000 members across 150 countries, FIATA also established 
standard trade documents to harmonize forms used by freight forwarders, one of which is the FIATA 
Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading (FBL). Historically, international trade has been a heavily paper -
based procedure and a single shipment could require up t o 40 separate paper forms. These forms 
are not only critical for the secure movement of goods, but also for businesses looking to access 
trade finance. To improve this system, FIATA has developed an eFBL which can significantly reduce 
the time required to fill out documents; cut down on errors from manual data inputting; and make 
information immediately accessible to different transacting parties. To improve tracking and security, 
a pilot of eFBLs, powered by blockchain technology, was implemented in late 2 022 allowing for 
integration of carriers, customs and trade finance banks. One of the greatest challenges FIATA has 
faced in this undertaking is to ensure that every part of the transaction chain is digitized, and that 
the same standards are used by all pa rties. In order to strengthen a digital trading system 
underpinned by electronic documents, FIATA called on WTO Members to: 1) adopt legislation INF/MSME/R/39  
 
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  compliant with the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR); 2) ensure clear and 
effective data gov ernance standards; 3) work towards an international instrument for negotiable 
multimodal transport documents; and 4) adopt international standards.  
4  CONNECTING MARKETS AND PEOPLE, THE WORLD TRADE BOARD  
4.1.  The World Trade Board aims to define and deliver recomm endations on international trade, 
finance and commerce. When it comes to financial inclusion of small businesses in trade, the World 
Trade Board issued a Financial Inclusion Roadmap earlier in 2023 which includes five 
recommendation areas centred around us ing non -traditional collateral and factoring. These are: 
1) policymakers ensure that digital infrastructure is adequate and then that they encourage 
mandatory e -invoicing and digital identities like the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI); 2) policymakers 
should  increase access to receivables -related data, potentially with the help of artificial intelligence, 
to support access to finance: 3) support technical learning by MSMEs and embed information tools 
in products developed for small businesses; 4) drive the ad option of standardized, international legal 
and regulatory frameworks, such as the model law on factoring; and 5) develop an infrastructure to 
encourage investment in credible small businesses to provide new MSME funding sources. 
Policymakers are encourage d to review the World Trade Board's roadmap and provide feedback; 
review the model laws, especially the one on factoring, in order to provide a framework to allow 
more MSMEs access to finance; consider e -invoicing and invoice repositories as another method  to 
verify MSME creditworthiness; and work with the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) 
to provide businesses with internationally recognized identities and to support growth.  
5  ALLIANCES FOR ACTION, ITC  
5.1.  Alliances for Action (A4A) is an initiative by the International Trade Centre (ITC) to develop 
agricultural producer and MSME partnerships in order to transform food systems and support the 
sustainable development goals. A4A works at a micro level on market development with farmers 
and bu sinesses for outreach to new partners and buyers, coaching, coordination, and food safety 
information. It was noted that the small farmers and businesses that A4A works with struggle the 
most with environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance, whic h can hold back their 
integration with larger operations as well as their access to international markets. MSMEs often 
struggle to understand the ESG requirements. Additionally, the connection between facilities, finance 
and understanding MSME pain points is not always strong on the part of the ESG creators. A4A tries 
to bridge these gaps as well as to address the financial component by educating both financial 
institutions about agricultural businesses and the financial literacy of MSMEs and value chain pl ayers. 
A4A focuses on a five -pillar approach to partnerships, namely understanding, convening, 
transforming, investing, and impacting. It operates in nearly thirty economies in Africa, the 
Caribbean and the Pacific.  
 
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