ITC, UNCTAD and WTO launch the Global Trade Helpdesk

The Global Trade Helpdesk (GTH) is a multi-agency initiative jointly led by ITC, UNCTAD, and the WTO that aims to simplify market research for companies, and especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), that often lack the resources and skills to acquire and process trade-related information. The platform provides a huge quantity of global trade information integrated into a single online portal for businesses interested to buy or sell products abroad.

Information available on the GTH include data on the demand size for each product (selected by indicating the relevant tariff code) across markets, export potential of the destination country, time and cost for export, applicable tariffs and other market access conditions (e.g. requirements or mandatory domestic procedures for importing products in a certain destination market).

Additionally, the GTH provides a list of potential partners for financing, export strategy development or distribution and is fully integrated with many online platforms collecting data on trade, like Trade Map, the ITC trade statistics portal for international business development.

The launch of the GTH has been preceded by a series of surveys conducted by ITC on 28,000 enterprises in 56 countries during the period 2010-2017, that showed as the lack of access to information and information transparency are the key obstacles for expansion abroad. The outcomes of such surveys also demonstrated that the smaller the company is, the greater the challenges in accessing and using the relevant trade and market information are.