WTO warns of continuing trade tensions

Media In / Geneva 02-04-2019 / WAM
The World Trade Organization (WTO) warned today that continued trade tensions will have a significant impact on world trade growth.
In a report released in Geneva on global trade growth, the organization said that these tensions, coupled with economic instability, led to slower than expected growth last year with the expectation that the volume of trade in goods trade would fall by 2.6 percent in 2019 compared to 3 percent in 2018. .
The organization said the rate would return to 3 percent next year if trade tensions began to decline. WHO forecast that global trade will face opposite winds this year and next year 2020.
“No one should be surprised by these expectations and results as trade tensions are rising now, especially since trade can not play its role fully when there are high levels of uncertainty,” FAO Director-General Roberto Azvedo told a news conference in Geneva.
He called for a positive roadmap that responds to the real challenges in today’s economy, including the technological revolution, job creation and development, warning that forgetting the fundamental importance of the rules-based trading system will make it a risk to be added. On jobs, growth and stability around the world.
The World Trade Organization noted that last year’s growth in global trade was affected by several factors, including new tariffs and reprisals affecting large-scale commodities, weak global economic growth, volatile financial markets and tight monetary conditions in developed and other countries.
Global GDP growth is expected to slow from 2.9 percent in 2018 to 2.6 percent in 2019 and 2020, he said.
He pointed out that the preliminary estimate for the growth of world trade in 2018 was less than the Organization predicted last September, at a rate of only 3% compared to expectations were 3.9%.
The figures explain the worst-than-expected result of world trade growth in the fourth quarter of 2018, with world trade declining by 0.3 percent.