France believes that sustainable and inclusive trade plays an important role in global economic growth and poverty alleviation, Olivier Becht, France’s minister of foreign trade, attractions and French citizens abroad, said on Thursday.
During the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers meeting held in Jaipur on August 24, Becht said it is essential to ensure fair distribution of trade benefits and facilitate the integration of less developed countries into sustainable value chains.
The French Foreign Trade Minister further stressed, “To ensure trade inclusion, we must support less developed countries to comply with international trade rules through assistance programs including capacity building, trade-related infrastructure and trade facilitation will be.”
He further said that G20 members have a role to play in supporting the development of value creation in low income and less developed economies, as this is essential for them to fully reap the benefits of global trade.
Adding to this, Becht said, “We have to help MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) to gain access to global trade. This is a priority of the French government. In fact, to integrate MSMEs into global trade Major challenges have to be tackled, such as access to information, finance and markets.”
Digitization can definitely help MSMEs to get access to easy exports apart from various tools and possible approaches. “This is why I welcome the Jaipur Call to Action to promote access to information for MSMEs,” he added.
Becht said, “In France, we established the so-called ‘Team-France Export’ digital platform five years ago. It is the result of the collective work of public and private bodies with SMEs, in order to respond more efficiently to their concrete actions. needs. For example, this means informing them about financing or market opportunities.”
Over the past few years, the number of French SME exporters has increased and is currently approaching a record 150,000.
“I believe that the growing trend towards protectionist measures and the degradation of our multilateral trading system based on rules is particularly harmful to global prosperity,” he said.
This has a direct impact on developing economies and their integration into global trade. “That is why G20 members must commit to ensuring that trade remains open and non-discriminatory,” he said.
Highlighting business resilience, Becht said, “If we believe that global integration of value chains has brought economic prosperity over the years, the vulnerability of our supply chains has come to the fore recently, especially with the Covid crisis “
We are also seeing more and more companies integrating the security of value chains into their strategic planning, he added.
“We, governments, also bear the responsibility to raise awareness on these issues and understand vulnerabilities. This is why I welcome the G20 Common Framework on Mapping Global Value Chains,” Becht said.
Furthermore, he said that sustainable development and climate issues are key components of resilient business.
“Trade and stability have to go hand in hand. Therefore, we also expect that the ongoing multilateral initiative on sustainable development issues will present a concrete and ambitious work program at the 13th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference,” he added.
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