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...

This paper charts the evolution and diversification of trade in knowledge that has taken place in the quarter-century since the WTO TRIPS Agreement came into force. Entirely new markets have come into being, potentially redefining the very character of 'trade'.

Adapting to the digital trade era: challenges and opportunities looks at how the rapid adoption of digital technologies could help developing countries increase their participation in world trade. It also reviews the role that domestic policies and international co-operation can play in creating...

Azevêdo says rise in trade restrictions “cause for concern”: Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, in introducing his annual report “Developments in the International Trading Environment” to the Trade Policy Review Body on 8 December, said that “the stock of trade restrictions introduced...

Technological change has transformed the ways knowledge is developed and shared internationally. Accordingly, in the quarter-century since the WTO was established, and since its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights came into force, both the knowledge dimension of...

What do we know about climate change? What is the relationship between trade and climate change? How does trade affect greenhouse gas emissions and can more open trade help to address climate change? What is the range of national measures that can contribute to global mitigation efforts? These...

Azevêdo’s health-check on global trade: Growth recovering but restrictions on the rise: Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, in presenting his first global trade-monitoring report to WTO members on 17 February 2014, said that trade growth projections for this year are “much improved, hovering...

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.

WTO members show restraint in trade restrictions despite ongoing economic uncertainties: WTO members introduced fewer trade-restrictive measures from mid-October 2016 to mid-October 2017 compared to the previous year, according to the Director-General’s annual overview report on trade-related...

The creation of the WTO in 1995 marked a crucial step in the history of multilateral trade, helping to open up fresh avenues of dialogue on how trade interacts with the environment and how to ensure that trade and environmental policies work hand in hand. This brochure, produced to mark the...