At a series of services meetings, held during the week of 9 December, the WTO Council for Trade in Services and its subsidiary bodies discussed green services, facilitating cross-border remittance transfers, and the classification of environmental services among other issues. Members also reviewed progress on efforts to help least developed countries (LDCs...
WTO members have injected renewed energy into the agricultural negotiations by tabling seven new submissions in the negotiating body on agriculture, the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, ahead of the organisation's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in March 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. At meetings of the body on 8 December, members empha...
At the opening of the Trade in Services for Development (TS4D) Conference on 3-4 December, the WTO and World Bank highlighted progress in the initiative's efforts to help developing economies leverage services trade for growth and development. Emphasizing the importance of services trade for the future of trade, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sai...
Food processing and global trade flows: What are the trends?2 December 2025By Eriya Chea, Siramane Coulibaly, Mateo Ferrero, Chen Lu, Thomas Verbeet and Erik WijkströmEconomies around the world are increasingly adopting public health policies aimed at improving nutrition and reducing the onset of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabet...
The value of global goods imports affected by new tariffs and other import measures increased more than fourfold from mid-October 2024 to mid-October 2025 compared to the prior 12-month period, marking the highest coverage in over 15 years of WTO trade monitoring, according to the WTO Director-General's latest annual overview of developments in the int...
Goods trade growth appears to have slowed in the second half of 2025 following a surge in the first half driven by frontloading of imports ahead of expected tariff hikes and by rising demand for AI-related products, according to the latest WTO Goods Trade Barometer.Goods trade growth set to moderate as barometer index dipsThe overall barometer index (illus...
Trade covered by tariffs in G20 economies increased about four times as much from mid-October 2024 to mid-October 2025 compared to the prior reporting period, marking the largest increase in the history of WTO trade monitoring. At the same time, economies made trade easier by twice as much in value terms over this period, according to the WTO's latest ...
Women-led businesses in Jordan can now apply for grants and technical support through the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund. The initiative, jointly funded and managed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat and the International Trade Centre (ITC), aims to help women entrepreneurs strengthen their digital capabilities and expan...
The October 2025 update of the WTO’s “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” presents the WTO Secretariat’s revised forecasts for world trade in 2025 and 2026. Breakdowns of merchandise and commercial services trade by sector and region are provided, together with details on leading traders.An analytical chapter looks at the limits of trade policy in inf...
At a meeting on 2 October, the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) advanced preparations for thematic discussions on critical and emerging technologies, good regulatory practices and metrology in trade to be held in November. WTO members also considered further refining their notification processes and the way their TBT measures are tracked ...
