Trade Restrictions on the Rise: WTO Report

3 August 2015

Data from the latest monitoring report by the World Trade Organization (WTO) reveal a growing stockpile of trade restrictive measures, with 104 new trade restrictions adopted by WTO members from mid-October 2014 to mid-May 2015. This is an increase of 12% since the last reporting period.

The WTO report, however, also noted a rise in trade-liberalizing measures, with 114 introduced in the same period.

WTO Director General Roberto Azevêdo, addressing WTO members, said that the organization's pace of removing trade-restrictive measures remains slow – it should seek to make decisive progress in eliminating remaining trade-restrictive measures while delivering negotiated outcomes in the upcoming ministerial conference.

WTO's Tenth Ministerial Conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2015.


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