The WTO Secretariat has published a new information note warning of possible increases to trade costs due to COVID-19 disruptions. The note examines the pandemic’s impact on key components of trade costs, particularly those relating to travel and transport, trade policy, uncertainty, and...

Proper measurement and aggregation of trade costs is of paramount importance for sound academic and policy analysis of the determinants - particularly those of policy - of economic outcomes. The international trade profession has witnessed signifcant new developments, both on the theoretical and...

The World Trade Report 2015 examines why the Trade Facilitation Agreement is so important, what its economic impact is projected to be, and how the WTO is taking a number of important – and novel – steps to help countries to maximize its benefits.

The world is changing with extraordinary rapidity, driven by many influences, including shifts in production and consumption patterns, continuing technological innovation, new ways of doing business and, of course, policy. The World Trade Report 2013 focuses on how trade is both a cause and an...

Trade has always been shaped by technology but the rapid development of digital technologies in recent times has the potential to transform international trade profoundly in the years to come. The World Trade Report 2018 examines how digital technologies – and in particular the Internet of...

The annual World Trade Report focuses on trade policy issues - the core topic addressed in 2006 is subsidies. The Report also takes a look at recent trade developments and examines a range of trade topics, including trade in textiles and clothing, flows of international receipts and payments of...

Without direct access to a sea or ocean and isolated from the world’s largest markets, landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) face many challenges to integrate into global supply chains. This report identifies specific trade bottlenecks in LLDCs, which have increased trading costs, lengthened...