Faced with the low participation of emerging markets in international trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have agreed to strengthen their cooperation in order to strengthen and adapt ways to improve the availability trade finance in regions that need it.

Less present in international trade despite their status as major suppliers of agricultural raw materials, developing countries are at the heart of cooperation between the WTO and the IFC. Meeting by videoconference on 29 November 2021, the Director-General of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Director-General of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Makhtar Diop, announced their commitment to improving the availability of financing for the trade in regions that need it, including emerging markets. In his intervention on the occasion, DG Okonjo-Iweala indicated that: “Our developing member countries regularly point out that the lack of trade finance is a major obstacle to participation in global trade, especially (as) for micro, small and medium enterprises, and enterprises run by women”. For her, by working together, experts from both organizations will be able to better analyze, detect and explain gaps in trade finance, with a view to directing scarce resources to where they are most needed.