This Informal Working Group on MSMEs, outlined three key objectives for 2019:

1) to achieve concrete deliverables;
2) to expand the Group’s membership; and
3) to secure commitment by ministers at the twelfth World Trade Organisation ministerial conference (MC12) in Kazakhstan and aim for a ministerial declaration, including the establishment of a formal work programme for MSMEs at the next Ministerial Conference in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

MSME participation in international trade is limited due to a range of barriers or obstacles: access to trade finance and information, protection of intellectual property, foreign exchange, non-tariff barriers, and the administrative burdens and costs associated with customs and compliance with the rules of origin. These issues are especially problematic for those smaller and micro businesses that are both time and resource poor. At present, MSMEs represent ninety-five per cent of all companies across the globe and account for sixty per cent of the world’s total employment. Yet, the role performed by MSMEs in their national economies of WTO members is not commensurate with their share in international trade.

Given the clear disparity between the role of MSMEs in domestic and global markets, as well as the potential gains and benefits of increased trade of MSMEs for developing and developed countries alike, SMEunited calls upon the informal working group and especially the EU to establish a comprehensive work programme for MSMEs. This work programme should contain a mixture of recommendations to both members and the World Trade Organisation, in order to make international trade optimal for MSMEs, and be adopted via a ministerial declaration.

If implemented, these recommendations could help improve the international trade environment for the smallest businesses and ensure that all companies, regardless of size, can benefit from equal and unfettered access to the global trading system, leading to a robust world economy.

Recommendations to Members could include, but should not be limited to: 

• Adopt a comprehensive MSME work programme, which is accompanied by key performance indicators to guide members to improve MSME participation in international trade; 
• Include a comprehensive small business chapter as the standard in all future bi-lateral, regional, and multilateral agreements; 
• Improve the utilisation rate and take-up of FTAs amongst MSMEs, in particular by building the capacity of representative MSME organisations to inform their members about the trading possibilities that FTAs offer to MSMEs; 
• Examine self-certification as an alternative to the current approach to complying with the rules of origin; 
• Improve access to trade finance; 
• ‘Think small first’ when designing trade policy and conducting thorough impact assessments; 
• Design domestic regulation in accordance with the principles of transparency and considering the impacts of any proposed measure on trading small firms; C
• Continue to engage in the exchange of best practice within the informal working group to identify ways to reduce trade costs: from building upon the trade facilitation agreement, developing a common de-minimis threshold, to the protection of intellectual property; 
• Work together to update the WTO rulebook to address issues like digital trade, domestic regulation, trade and investment facilitation, and sustainability; 
• Include MSME specific information within their Trade Policy Review Mechanisms to further;
• Recognise the special status of MSME in trade defence investigations (anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguards) by introducing special initiatives and platforms encouraging MSME to participate and make their views known in trade defence investigations; and 
• Increase transparency and enable the sharing of best practices to further MSME participation. 

Recommendations to the WTO could include, but should not be limited to: 

• Upgrade the informal working group by establishing a permanent committee on MSMEs at the WTO to address cross-cutting issues and help guide members in the implementation of certain WTO agreements, such as the trade facilitation agreement; 
• Develop a ‘think small first’ approach for the application and design of WTO rules; and 
• Raise awareness of existing tools and methods developed with other organisations, such as the rules of origin facilitator, e-ping and global trade help-desk. 

If implemented, these recommendations could help improve the international trade environment for the smallest businesses and ensure that all companies, regardless of size, can benefit from equal and unfettered access to the global trading system, leading to a robust world economy. 

We are convinced that our recommendations and requests are in the interest of all MSMEs from all over the globe and  call on other organisations to join our statement to achieve a concrete outcome from the MSME workstream at the Ministerial Conference in Kazakhstan in June.