"Tariffs shake global trade rules"/ WTO warns of the biggest trade crisis in the last 80 years
The share of global trade conducted under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules has fallen to 72% and could fall further, in the face of the biggest disruption to the international trading system in 80 years, the WTO Director-General said.
Since US President Donald Trump's decision to impose higher tariffs on imports from most US trading partners this year, the share of global trade conducted under the "Most Favoured Nation" (MFN) principle has fallen from about 80% to 72%, according to WTO data. The principle requires that all WTO members be treated equally.
"We are experiencing the biggest shake-up of global trade rules, something unprecedented in the last 80 years," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview with Reuters, at the start of her second term at the head of the Geneva-based organization.
“So it’s no wonder that some question the global trading system… and the predictability it provides. But as long as the majority of trade continues to take place on Most Favoured Nation terms, I think we should see it as an achievement. We’re still far from the critical 50% mark,” she added.
The WTO chief warned that global trade could feel the effects of tariffs “later” into 2026, as the strong surge in trade volume, fueled by stockpiles in the first half of the year, begins to fade. The premature expansion contributed to the WTO’s decision in August to upgrade its 2025 global trade growth forecast from 0.2% to 0.9%.
“It may be that other effects will appear later, when warehouses are emptied and the impacts start to be felt, but we will see next year. However, we still anticipate growth,” she concluded.
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