CRI听力:WTO: Hangzhou Summit paves way for trade facilitation

Roberto Azevêdo says work done ahead of the sessions in Hangzhou have paved the way for the ratification of a Trade Facilitation Agreement.

"What we found out is that the impact of the Trade Facilitation Agreement would be bigger than if we eliminated all tariffs that exist in the world today. All of them."

Azevêdo says the ratification of the deal will ultimately create cheaper goods and faster distribution.

G20 Trade Ministers have agreed to ratify the Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of this year.

To make the agreement official, 110 of the WTO's 162 members need to ratify it.

Meanwhile, Roberto Azevedo says steps have also been taken to try to quantify how global trade is shaping up on a regular basis.

"One of the things we did together, the WTO and China, was the world trade outlook indicator. We are almost at 100, which mean we are going to maintain the growth that we were expecting, which is not brilliant."

On the outlook indicator scale, 100 is the benchmark as to whether trade is expected to increase or decrease.

Azevedo says with the figure currently just below 100, he hopes the G20 members will put a priority on trade coordination and cooperation to get indicators moving up.

Ahead of the Hangzhou sessions, the World Trade Organization has also released figures about the world economic performance in 2015, as well as its forecast for the next two years.

The WTO estimates global trade growth for this year is going to come in at 2.8 percent, which would be unchanged from 2015.

If the trend holds, 2016 will be the fifth consecutive year that global trade has grown below 3-percent.