📖New resource: World Trade Organization’s Trade4MSMEs

The World Trade Organization (WTO) published the Trade4MSMEs website, a resource to enable small enterprises to increase their exports. The tool is a useful collection of information, though it is missing formats for small enterprises to interact or understand what applies in their concrete settings. More customizable resources, including on how small businesses can use platforms and digital tools for exporting, are needed.

The tool was created by the WTO’s so-called Informal Working Group on Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), an assembly of 91 WTO member states that seeks to improve trade conditions for small businesses. The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) play important roles as facilitators.

The Trade4MSMEs tool has two editions, one for policymakers and one for small businesses.

The MSME-oriented tool offers a kind of step-by-step guide to exporting goods or services. The guide runs through seven broad questions that small enterprises may ask — from “What should I know” to “What happens when there’s a trade disagreement”. It then offers basic answers to each question, plus links to further reading from organizations like ITC.

The MSME tool also offers a more comprehensive library that includes an array of technical documents and resources, organized by eight topics, from “Trade in Goods” to “Regional Trade Agreements”.

The policymaker guide follows a similar format, running through five broad questions and offering a detailed technical library.

The tool focuses on Southeast Asia, but the answers to the guiding questions are broadly applicable.

Our take: rich and comprehensive

The Trade4MSMEs site is a comprehensive collection of information on a complex topic. Small enterprises that are endeavoring to export can use it as a point of orientation.

As mentioned in a previous Spotlight, step-by-step guides have become the norm as an approach to break down swaths of information into manageable pieces.

Yet, the Trade4MSMEs tool could be enhanced by presenting information in more intuitive ways, for instance, by offering customized information or interactive features. It may fall short on the ambition to directly speak to MSMEs, including informal microbusinesses.

Also the role of platforms and digital technologies is only discussed in general terms, by focusing on definitions and concepts, without guiding small enterprises through how to make effective use of digital opportunities.

Still, the tool’s explicit focus on exporting by small enterprises is rare, uniquely relevant, and timely.

The big picture: exporting matters

Also in the digital age, trading goods and services across national borders remains a daunting task for small enterprises. More resources that are directly applicable are needed.

Exporting is bound to come with new legal risks and challenges, as well as higher cost for maintaining relationships and securing transactions.

It is no coincidence that exporting small enterprises are often in another league compared to locally oriented peers: they are more productive, more competitive, and have stronger digital capabilities.

Resources like the Trade4MSMEs site are a starting point, but customized, contextualized, and one-to-one guidance will remain indispensable for small enterprises that seek to make the jump to international markets.

Small Business Spotlight is a roundup of recent trends and insights about small enterprise in the digital age, by Dr Nicolas Friederici