According to the latest World Trade Organization's (WTO) Trade Monitoring Report on G20 trade measures, the G20 economies introduced substantially more trade-facilitating than trade-restrictive measures on goods between mid-October 2022 and mid-May 2023.

The report indicates however that several export restrictions on food, feed and fertilizers remained in place, compromising the predictable flow of food through international markets and contributing to price volatility at a time when food affordability remains a major global concern.

The war in Ukraine, COVID-19 after-effects, extreme weather and high food and energy prices continue to cause uncertainty in global trade.

As of mid-May 2023, WTO members still had 63 export restrictions in place on food, feed and fertilizers down from the total of 101 that had been introduced since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In addition, 21 COVID-19-related export restrictions remain in force. Of these, G20 economies were maintaining 19 of the export restrictions on food, feed and fertilizers and 12 of the pandemic-related export restrictions.

During the review period, G20 economies introduced 77 new trade-facilitating and 41 trade-restrictive measures on goods. Most of them were import measures. The trade coverage of G20 trade-facilitating measures was estimated at USD 691.9 billion (up from USD 451.8 billion in the last report, issued in November 2022) and that of trade-restrictive measures at USD 88.0 billion (down from USD 160.1 billion).

Overall, there is no sign of a rollback of the accumulated stockpile of G20 import restrictions introduced since the global financial crisis. By the end of 2022, 11.1% of G20 imports were affected by import restrictions implemented since 2009 and still in force.

 

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