A Trade Monitoring Report was issued by the WTO on 21 November 2009 covering the period from mid-May to mid-October 2019. The report indicates that the G20 countries introduced import-restrictive measures affecting goods worth around USD 460.4 billion. Trade restrictive measures include measures such as increased tariffs, restrictions on exports or local content requirements.
The growth in world trade has stalled and the forecast by the WTO for 2019 for world trade growth has been reduced to 1.2%. Other forward-looking indicators of trade and output are also more negative, and there are further risks to the latest forecast if the restrictive measures increase or GDP growth declines further in major economies.
The WTO estimates that around 8.8% of G20 imports are currently affected by the restrictions introduced during the past ten years, representing USD 1.3 trillion out of a total USD 15.1 trillion imports by G20 economies.
