DIRECTOR General Pascal Lamy, in his annual report to members on developments in the international trading environment, said: “The world needs a renewed and stronger commitment from all Governments to revitalize the multilateral trading system that can restore economic certainty at a time when it is badly needed. The policy determination to resist inward-looking policies seems to be faltering in some countries, even as the world economy needs more trade to stave off recession.”

Trade slowdown

The global economy has encountered increasingly strong headwinds over the past few months that have set back world trade and output growth. The outlook is worse than at the time of issuance of the previous trade monitoring report in June 2012 due, among other things, to budget developments and the persistent debt crises in some major economies. Output and employment trends in many countries have continued to be negative, despite the many measures implemented to contain the slowdown in economic growth. In the face of these developments, the WTO Secretariat has recently revised downward its forecast for world trade growth in 2012 to 2.5% down from its 3.7% forecast issued in April 2012. The volume of trade growth in 2013 is now forecast to be at 4.5%, still below the long-term annual average of 5.4% for the last 20 years.