Global Trade Helpdesk: Digital solutions empower business support organizations in navigating COVID-hit global markets

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Global Trade Helpdesk: A free, timely and relevant trade tool to simplify your market research

Designed with the needs of SMEs in mind, the Global Trade Helpdesk – accessible at www.GlobalTradeHelpDesk.org – simplifies market research for businesses of all sizes through a single access to crucial trade and business information. It integrates key sources of trade data from partner agencies including the WTO, ITC, UNCTAD, World Bank Group, IADB, FAO, WCO, WIPO, AfDB, ICC as well as UNIDO, and makes this information available free of charge through a user-friendly interface.

Smaller firms have been among the hardest hit by COVID-19.

Demand for their goods and services plummeted when the pandemic disrupted supply chains. In response, chambers of commerce and other business support organizations (BSOs) worldwide have been diligently working to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to adapt their business strategies and put them on the path to recovery.

‘Our new normal will be a digital one,’ Mr. Bradford Lamptey in Ghana said. ‘This year has pushed us to change the way we work and become more efficient for the firms we serve.’ With the help of tools like the Global Trade Helpdesk, BSOs are better equipped to confront the challenges of tomorrow and evolving global market conditions.

More about digital tools HERE.

Interest in the Global Trade Helpdesk has surged in response to the COVID-19-related economic disruptions.

The number of users of the platform has nearly tripled since it was rolled out in June 2020. More than 2,100 participants from diverse chambers, public institutions, and firms have taken part in dedicated webinars across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Access to reliable, timely and relevant information is more critical than ever, with different markets being impacted at different times and to different degrees, and the onslaught of temporary trade policy measures put in place by dozens of governments around the world.

Source: ITC