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 ...
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held a Partnership Review Meeting in Geneva on 19 September 2025 to look into the impact of the cooperation between the two organizations. Building on the Memorandum of Understanding signed at COP28 in December 2023, the review highlighted p...
AI to boost trade by nearly 40% by 2040 if gaps are bridged, World Trade Report 2025 findsThe 2025 edition of the World Trade Report reveals that, with the right enabling policies, artificial intelligence (AI) could boost the value of cross-border flows of goods and services by nearly 40% by 2040 thanks to productivity gains and lower trade costs. However,...
At a special General Council meeting on 15 September, WTO members celebrated the entry into force of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which commits members to curbing billions of dollars in annual spending on the most harmful subsidies that contribute to the depletion of marine fish stocks. Hailing the Agreement as a “landmark for global trade go...
