Trade

Agricultural trade plays a crucial role in providing livelihoods for farmers and people employed along the food supply chain and contributes to reducing global food insecurity. A growing share of agro-food trade involves global value chains (GVCs), where the different stages of agricultural and food production processes are spread over several countries.

The digital transformation has led to unprecedented reductions in the costs of engaging in international trade, changing how and what we trade, and who can trade. However, it has also given rise to new regulatory challenges that make it more difficult for governments to ensure that the opportunities from digital trade are realised and shared more inclusively.

The OECD is the key multilateral negotiating forum where international disciplines for officially supported export credits are agreed, implemented, and monitored. These disciplines establish a level playing field for exporters via a series of financial and good governance rules.

Globalisation creates opportunities for workers, consumers and firms and has helped lift millions out of poverty. Open markets are a source of economic resilience and diversification along supply chains. Open economies grow faster than closed ones but a fair distribution of those gains does not happen automatically. The OECD’s work in support of open markets and a rules-based international trading system aims at making trade work for all.

Global value chains (GVCs) account for about 70% of international trade, as services, raw materials, parts, and components cross borders—often multiple times. As the trend toward cross-border supply chains increases, new challenges are emerging around sustainability, efficiency, and resilience. This growing complexity calls for policies that take a whole-of-chain approach to supply chain management and global trade.

Illicit trade refers to the illegal production, movement, and sale of goods and services, spanning activities such as the trade in counterfeit goods and cultural artefacts, smuggling, wildlife trafficking and illegal logging. These operations, often run by criminal networks, exploit global supply chains and trade infrastructure, undermining public safety, weakening institutions, eroding the rule of law, and reducing tax revenues. Illicit trade distorts markets, harms consumers, and presents a serious governance challenge that transcends borders and sectors. The OECD works with governments, international organisations, and private sector partners to map illicit trade risks, strengthen enforcement, and design policies that uphold the integrity of global trade.

International trade is a major driver of economic growth: exporting firms earn higher profits, pay higher wages, and grow faster than non-exporting firms. Yet these benefits are not evenly distributed. Ensuring that businesses led by women, Indigenous People, and other historically disadvantaged groups are able to benefit from the opportunities provided by international trade will contribute to greater societal equality and higher economic growth.

Services play a vital role in the global economy. They generate more than two-thirds of global gross domestic product (GDP), attract over three-quarters of foreign direct investment in advanced economies, employ the most workers, and create the most new jobs worldwide. In a modern digital economy, trade in services ensures access to information, skills and technology. Yet trade in services remains affected by a range of barriers that threaten to undermine these potential benefits.

Subsidies and government support can come in many forms, with different types prevalent in different sectors. While some types of support are relatively well understood, others are much more difficult to identify and measure. A common understanding of the nature and scale of subsidies across sectors is a critical first step in international co-operation to address concerns about the global level playing field.

OECD work on trade and sustainability contributes to enhancing the understanding of how trade and the environment interact and to documenting and examining the effect of trade policies and trade-related environmental policies on trade, climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. In particular, we look at how trade facilitation can ensure environmental goods and services cross borders smoothly and that trade-related environmental policies do not hamper trade more than necessary.