- We urgently need to kickstart tourism’s recovery but COVID-19 crisis offers an opportunity to rethink it
- Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Annual Report highlights efforts to boost SPS capacity despite pandemic challenges
- Morocco appeals panel report regarding duties on school books from Tunisia
- UNCTAD15 registration is now open
We urgently need to kickstart tourism’s recovery but COVID-19 crisis offers an opportunity to rethink it
For many economies, these months are critical, and millions of businesses and workers are eager for tourists to return, especially given how badly the sector has already been hit.
Last year was catastrophic for tourism and the millions of people who depend on it. After six decades of extraordinary growth, the sector was brought to a near-complete standstill by the COVID-19 pandemic.
International tourist arrivals fell to levels not seen since 1990. We estimate that the crisis has cost the world about $4 trillion and placed over 100 million direct tourism jobs at risk.
Kickstarting the recovery
First and foremost, we need to collectively ensure that vaccination is equitably available across the world. One key concern is that developing countries, many of which are highly dependent on international tourism, are bearing the heaviest brunt of the uneven vaccination roll-out.
In addition, digital technologies need to be used to increase security and boost travellers’ confidence. It is also time to step up digitalization among companies and the tourism workforce, upskilling the sector to become more resilient.
This crisis is an opportunity to rethink tourism. For instance, so-called “overtourism” had been a concern in many places prior to the pandemic.
Now is the moment to redesign and adjust tourism policies and management, including through greater diversification, more innovative products and the revitalization of rural areas.
Across the world, people have started to rediscover their own countries through domestic tourism and this offers an opportunity to spread the sector’s benefits more widely.
As we enter another peak travel season with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, we need to face up to the fact that the crisis confronting tourism is far from over.
Tourism is the sector with the broadest economic value chain and the deepest social footprint. Herein lies the opportunity to rethink, restart and to grow back better.
Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Annual Report highlights efforts to boost SPS capacity despite pandemic challenges[2]
The latest annual report from the STDF, launched on 2 August, highlights the continued efforts by developing and least developed countries to strengthening their food safety, animal and plant health capacity despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on health systems and caused enormous disruption to the global economy, the report notes. Governments took measures to contain the spread of the virus, including travel restrictions, lockdowns, social distancing, and other safety protocols. Production and trade in agri-food products was scaled back, resulting in huge economic losses around the world that continue to be felt today.
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the STDF adapted quickly across all its workstreams and kept delivering strong results in 2020, making efforts to understand the new realities on the ground and continuing to provide vital assistance to strengthen food safety, animal and plant health systems in developing countries.
Digital opportunities and solutions to support economic recovery and longer-term resilience against future shocks featured strongly in STDF’s project work. Strengthening SPS capacity, as a global public good, is critical for developing countries to recover from shocks, such as COVID-19, and to become more resilient against future outbreaks of pests and diseases.
The latest Annual Report provides snapshots of STDF-supported projects, such as pesticide residue mitigation in Asia during COVID-19; piloting new models for food safety standards in West Africa and Central America; harmonizing regulations and integrating pesticide strategies in Southern Africa; improving developing country access to the global “ePhyto” electronic phytosanitary certificates exchange; and modernizing veterinary services through the “eVet” electronic veterinary certification programme.
Country-specific projects highlighted in the report include enhancing trade for cocoa farmers in Papua New Guinea; strengthening Zambia’s phytosanitary capacity for plant exports; improving SPS capacity in the Penja pepper value chain in Cameroon; streamlining inspection, control, and surveillance of food of animal origin in Costa Rica; and improving the safety of smoked fish in Mali.
The STDF Annual report can be downloaded at the following link: https://www.standardsfacility.org/stdf-2020-annual-report.
Morocco appeals panel report regarding duties on school books from Tunisia[3]
Morocco has notified the Dispute Settlement Body of its decision to appeal the panel report in the case brought by Tunisia in «Morocco — Definitive Anti-Dumping Measures on School Exercise Books from Tunisia» (DS578). The appeal was circulated to WTO members on 4 August 2021.
Given the ongoing lack of agreement among WTO Members regarding the filling of Appellate Body vacancies, there is no Appellate Body Division available at the current time to deal with the appeal.
For further information please follow the link:
UNCTAD15 registration is now open[4]
Registration is now open for UNCTAD’s 15th quadrennial conference (UNCTAD15) scheduled to take place online from 3 to 7 October, hosted by Barbados, under the theme “From inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all”.
The event is the UN’s first major conference on trade and development amid the coronavirus pandemic and will help shape policy responses for a better recovery from COVID-19.
The conference is UNCTAD’s highest decision-making body. It sets the organization’s work priorities for the next four years and formulates global policy recommendations.
Virtual platform
The conference will take place on a virtual platform where attendees can participate in discussions, exchange ideas in breakout sessions, watch multimedia content, explore exhibitions, download documents, connect and network with each other.
Several sessions on trade, investment, finance, technology, environment and other development-related topics will be held during the conference.
In the lead-up to the gathering, UNCTAD will launch campaigns to spotlight pressing issues to be tackled during the conference and the actions needed to ensure global efforts to recover from the pandemic equally benefit everyone everywhere.
How to register
Those wishing to participate in the conference first need to create a profile on Indico, and then register online.
[1] https://unctad.org/news/we-urgently-need-kickstart-tourisms-recovery-covid-19-crisis-offers-opportunity-rethink-it
[2] https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news21_e/stdf_02aug21_e.htm
[3] https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news21_e/ds578apl_04aug21_e.htm