According to the WTO, in 2018, 95% of companies across the globe are MSMEs, accounting for 60% of the world’s total employment. However, MSMEs face a number of obstacles when seeking to participate in international trade. To address these obstacles, 88 WTO members signed a statement at the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) in December 2017 declaring their intention to create an Informal Working Group on MSMEs to explore ways in which WTO members could better support MSMEs’ participation in global trade. The Informal Working Group met for the first time in March 2018.

Participation in this Joint Initiative is open to all WTO members.

(Work in progress)