Commonwealth Trade Competitiveness Programme The Commonwealth countries (developing, emerging economies, least developed countries and small and vulnerable economies including island states) experience a wide range of challenges in improving their trade competitiveness which translate to low shares in global trade. Small domestic markets and limited production capacities make many of these countries dependent on global imports. This increases their vulnerability and lead to limited employment opportunities and wide spread poverty, making them susceptible to dangers of food shortages. In order to pay for their global imports, the exports of these countries need to be increased to enable them build their foreign exchange reserves, increase their employment opportunities, especially for women and youth and generate incomes for their poor. 

 The COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted the economic development gains made by many of these countries post 2008 global crisis. Re building global competitiveness post COVID 19 will rely on the ability of governments and businesses to respond to the crisis by effectively implementing policies, plans and strategies to improve productivity and raise living standards in a stable, market-friendly environment to achieve inclusive development

Many of the Commonwealth countries need support and technical assistance to rebuild their trade competitiveness. This support is needed to diversify their export baskets and export destinations; improve their market access through well negotiated trade agreements; build trade competitiveness within their services sectors through regulatory cooperation and reforms; facilitate investments in areas where limited supply capacities exist; develop comprehensive national trade policies; and improve their trade facilitation processes in order to lower their cost of trading. The Commonwealth Trade Competitiveness Program aims at providing technical support in these five areas in a holistic fashion so that any country receiving this support is fully enabled to effectively participate in global trade in a manner that leads to generation of additional employment, especially for women and youth, and prosperity for the country.    

The program has in the past three years (since 2017) received formal requests from the Trade Ministries for trade competitiveness support in the above areas from 22 countries (Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Gambia, Grenada, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tonga),  facilitated 3 regional projects (East African Community (EAC),  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and CARICOM/CAIPA, and supported 2 Pan Commonwealth projects- the Intra- Commonwealth SME Association and the Annual Forum for developing countries program in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Development and UNCTAD.  (Annex 8- some example of formal requests from these countries). 

The global COVID 19 pandemic slowed down the deployment and completion of some of the programs initiated in FY 2019/20. Contracts that had been issued to undertake work in Belize were cancelled as a result of the restriction on travel and previously scheduled stakeholder consultations were put on hold. The team in response in partnership with the government institutions has deployed most of these activities using virtual platforms. However some scheduled projects will be carried on to the 2020/21 FY as these could not be delivered virtually. 

Based on the formal requests received from the Trade Ministries of the member states and the regional bloc, the trade competitiveness program provides technical assistance to the member countries. 32 out of 54 Commonwealth countries are natural resources and commodity-dependent countries exporting commodities like metals and minerals and few agricultural commodities (like cotton, tea, etc.).
 
The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting global trade in three main areas: demand disruption, supply disruption and workforce impacts. Over two-thirds of world trade occurs through global value chains (GVCs). According to the International Trade Centre, the disruption of three major GVC hubs – China, the EU and the USA – could result in a US$228 billion decrease in exports across GVCs. The pandemic has also caused a severe decline in commodity prices with its adverse consequences for the balance of trade and debt repayments, which will be quite significant for Commonwealth member countries that depend on commodity exports. The impact of the pandemic on the services sectors of travel, tourism and hospitality also has grave consequences for many countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing states.

Along with fiscal and monetary policies, reinvigorating global trade will be a key component of economic recovery after the pandemic and supporting the rebuilding of member’s trade competitiveness will be a critical step in the recovery process. 

The Trade Competitiveness Program delivers five outputs- Output 1- Export Diversification Program identifies New Products and New Markets for diversifying exports of the member states. It designs product-market specific export strategies. It builds negotiating capacity and provide technical assistance in trade negotiations to the countries to improve their global market access.  This then feeds into the Output 2- National Trade Policy Program where domestic constraints are identified which hinder a country from availing global trade opportunities and restricts the productive capacity of the producers. Given the growing importance of e-commerce and digital trade, an E commerce strategy becomes an important part of the National Trade Policies designed for the member states. Many member states have limited manufacturing capacities thereby making it important to add services in their export baskets. Identification of competitive services and developing a Services Export Strategy along with enhancing regulatory cooperation and reform to boost trade in services is delivered by the Output 3 -Trade in Services Program. In many areas, the member states enjoy trade competitiveness but lack supply capacities due to lack of investments. Output 4- The Investment Facilitation program identifies the potential investment areas and help in developing investment policies and plans for the member states. However, without trade facilitation measures in place cost of trading will remain high adversely impacting on trade competitiveness. Output 5- The Trade Facilitation program support member countries and/ regions with niche, highly targeted interventions that support their institutional capacity to reform their processes and implement trade facilitation initiatives. Pan Commonwealth programs that provide linkages for MSMEs is delivered through the Intra- Commonwealth SME Association.
 
The Secretariat is best placed as an organisation to provide this comprehensive support to the member countries. The Trade Competitiveness Section has developed a unique methodology to identify New Products and New Markets for export diversification. While other organisations recommend export diversification to the countries, the Secretariat is the only organisation which is able to provide technical support on How to Diversify Exports. Export diversification program is therefore a niche area for the Secretariat. Given its honest brokerage image many countries approach the Secretariat for technical assistance in their trade negotiations. No other multilateral organisations provide a country with such a technical assistance where the country is directly assisted in its trade negotiations. Most of the organisations like UNCTAD undertake research on WTO negotiating issues/ regional; trade issues and provide global trade policy advocacy. The Secretariat has also proved its expertise and a competitive edge over other organisations in terms of providing technical assistance through its other programs. Countries who had received support from other organisations like ITC for developing their national trade policies/export strategies have approached the Secretariat for their subsequent trade policies e.g., Jamaica. The trade in services program of the Secretariat has been hailed as a success by many small countries including Belize and Barbados. The Trade Ministers in the recent Trade Ministers meeting organised by the Secretariat in March 2017, expressed their appreciation of the Trade Competitiveness Program and have recommended further support to the program. Ministers also expressed their need for technical assistance in implementation of Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which is first of its kind program initiated by the Secretariat where the Secretariat conducts cost of implementation of TFA for the countries and helps them in implementing as well as raising resources for the implementation of TFA.