1. The first challenge is the change in the concepts of globalisation and localisation, generating the glocalisation term which leads to a number of requirements that change the way of understanding trade and services, the way of carrying out the exchanges, consumer´s demand, provision of services, quality, promptness and new needs of meeting the local demand and the global origin of the production.
2. The second challenge, which has increased the need of finding a new approach, is the radical change that global economy has suffered. As other world regions have grown faster, the EU world market share has been decreasing in the last decades, a process that has been aggravated due to the economic recession. The search for an economical growth outside the Union has already started… turning the exchanges in a bigger challenge, outside the comfort zone stablished by the Community legal framework, increasing the uncertainty and demanding greater preparation from all the operators in the industry of international trade and in the companies.
3. The third challenge is a more intense interregional trade which might be a result of a response to the decrease in the demand, or to the fear of being excluded when the competitor countries have a better access to the markets, they are interested in. Some however, point out that the increasing regionalism represents a risk for multilateralism, free trade and, ultimately, the wellbeing of the international community. But in fact, multilateralism stands in direct opposition to protectionism, not regionalism. Some of these rules, pave the way for the WTO agreements with a bigger consensus. Services, intellectual property, environmental regulations and policies regarding investments and competency are issues that were raised in regional negotiations and that turned out into agreements or questions for debate for the WTO that must be worked and make some progress on. Spain for instance is in 48th place in the ranking of world countries that defend best the intellectual property and there is a staggering tolerance towards counterfeiting and plagiarism. It is required that society and companies, act against this permissiveness, that at the same time, generates a potential niche for business models.
4. Non-Tariff measurements are erecting as an obstacle towards trading, facing the challenge of finding a legal framework of acceptance and overall rationale. Whether it is about technical standards, or attestation of conformity, prescriptions in terms of health and safety or service regulations, these new obstacles are more difficult to be regulated on global level, due to that big part of them are based on social preferences, local values or in community specificities. In fact, they generally don´t have a protectionist intention: they intend to protect the consumer more than the manufacturer. This demands the creation of a new policy and new standards of corporate social liability and respect for human rights and guiding principles.
5. The demand of governance in these policy areas that is nowadays satisfied through concluding preferential agreements, need new consensuses.
6. The fact that the intermediate products have to cross the borders of the countries involved in value chains in multiple instances, means that the cost of trading restrictions will be multiplied. It will not be enough with tariffs being low but regulatory regimes should be compatible in order to guarantee the efficient functioning of the value chains. Ensuring the convergence of the regulation is crucial because of the increasing weight of the non-tariff measurements. If you want to avoid fragmenting the global trading system, a greater convergence between global trade regulations and the standards, rules and policies that result from other financial areas. Due to the fast evolution of world trade structure, restrictions to export will translate inevitably into a decrease of exports competency. Companies must be alert and anticipate contingency plans towards these risks rather than resurfacing on and off in different countries of the world, this is nowadays the case in EEUU where they are stablishing alternative internationalisation plans.
7. International trade presents itself as the way to job creation, and poverty reduction. It offers indeed, a fiscally source responsible for the growth of many countries that currently have many serious difficulties for stimulating their economies due to high indebtment levels. At the same time, this fact poses the challenge that involves bringing products from undeveloped countries that can satisfy the demands of developed countries without any problems, with more competitive prices, shifting the supply.
8. The increasing disappearance of mediation, linked to the development of the internet and new technologies. Market transparency and the global jump of information sources, imposing price reductions and offering a framework of opportunities so companies can reach consumers with their products in a way that is becoming more and more direct, eliminating all kind of intermediate structures, through different proposals of technological platforms.
9. The demand for an ongoing preparation when facing all challenges of knowledge and at the same time of new skills that change the way we work and impose more flexibles frames, more diverse and multidisciplinary teams and the need of developing collaborative economies of knowledge with local teams, that work remotely and on a project basis, changing the employment structure as we know it. The use of platforms with experts as a resource for the accurately management of occasional demands, it is becoming the only possibility in order to carry out quality job that meets the expectations of that demand.
10. The incorporation of talent with no gender, diverse, multicultural, able to contribute with new ideas, to innovate and anticipate problems and demands, as a result of a global consumer, it is the only possible answer for the company that wants to answer the needs of new ad prosumers and effectively compete.
Our company, Comerciando Global, has developed digital consulting products that respond to the knowledge that a company must have in order to grow internationally. Through online questionnaires that work as diagnostics, or as products for the company´s external consultant, SMEs can find out about their DAFO analysis, their opportunities and threats, and the necessary areas of improvement in order to overcome the challenge that the new international frame supposes, internally and at ridiculous prices, in comparison with the current consultancy prices, and wherever you are in the planet, since the platform will operate in 5 different languages so far, with global experts.