Global Trade Outlook 2025: press conference

Press conference with Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Chief Economist Ralph Ossa, launching the Global Trade Outlook and Statistics, released on 16 April. The report shows that temporary tariff pause mitigates trade contraction, but strong downside risks persist. Under current conditions, the volume of world merchandise trade is likely to fall by 0.2% in 2025. The decline is expected to be particularly steep in North America, where exports are forecasted to drop by 12.6%. However, severe downside risks exist, including the application of “reciprocal” tariffs and broader spillover of policy uncertainty, which could lead to an even sharper decline of 1.5% in global goods trade and hurt export-oriented least-developed countries. The report contains for the first time a forecast for services trade to complement its projections for merchandise trade. The volume of services trade is forecasted to grow by 4.0% in 2025, around 1 percentage point less than expected. More info: https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/ne... Download this video from the WTO website: https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/web...