Trade and Innovation: Policy Options for a New Innovation Landscape

This paper assesses whether current trade regulatory frameworks, in particular WTO agreements, adequately support innovation as a policy objective in the context of the knowledge economy and the digital environment. It then converges around recommendations in six broad categories of possible policy change: global rules on digital trade; new rules to expand the movement of people to pursue innovation opportunities; revised rules on internationally agreed and targeted research subsidies in areas of recognized global public concern; a concerted move to establish international standard-setting on the basis of open and global collaboration; an internationally coordinated approach to trade secrets; and steps to improve innovation-related data collection. It concludes by submitting different approaches to innovation and trade system reform and by identifying a set of research gaps that deserve further analysis at the intersection between innovation, trade and sustainable development.