WTO: Trade restrictions effect international trade negatively

Deniz Kılınç / İstanbul, July 26 (DHA) – World Trade Organization’s (WTO) latest report points out to the damaging effects of the trade-restrictive measures taken by the members to the international trade community.
WTO’s report states that the members have introduced more trade-restrictive measures from mid-October to mid-May compared to the previous review period and that during the review period, members have applied 75 new trade-restrictive measures, including tariff increases, quantitative restrictions, imposition of import taxes and stricter customs regulations.
Noting that the applications amount to a monthly average of almost 11 new measures per month, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said: "The message of the Report before us today is serious. We are heading in the wrong direction, and we seem to be speeding up. Growth, jobs and recovery are at stake. I call on members to recognize the gravity of this report and its findings. We need to see immediate steps which de-escalate the situation. I will continue working with all members to this end."
According to the report, WTO members have also implemented 89 measures aimed at facilitating trade during the review period, including eliminated or reduced tariffs, simplified customs procedures, reduction of import taxes and elimination of import bans. At almost 13 trade-facilitating measures per month, this is an increase compared to the average of 11 measures recorded for the previous review period.
In line with the findings of previous reports, the trade coverage of the import-facilitating measures (107.3 billion dollars) is larger than that of the import-restrictive measures (84.5 billion dollars). While this is encouraging, the ratio of the trade coverage of import-facilitating over import-restrictive measures, which was two-to-one in favour of the former in the November 2017 report, has fallen significantly for the current period review.