21st Century Trade Challenges On 13 April Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), announced the establishment of a panel charged with examining and analysing the challenges to global trade in the 21st century. At the WTO’s 8th Ministerial Conference in December last year, Lamy suggested that the profound transformations in the world economy required the WTO and the multilateral trading system to look at the drivers of today’s and tomorrow’s trade, and to look at trade patterns and at what it meant to open global trade in the 21st century. This in light of the role of trade in contributing to sustainable development, growth, jobs and poverty alleviation. He said that the analysis to be produced by the panellists in early 2013 could make an important contribution to debate between members on the best way to tackle these challenges. “The difficulties we, and many other multilateral institutions, have encountered in recent years is indisputable proof that yesterday’s solutions simply cannot be applied to the problems we face today. This panel encompasses experts from all corners of the world and nearly every field of endeavour. Their analysis will spark debate and open new channels of thinking on how we can best confront the stumbling blocks that today’s rapidly evolving world has strewn in our collective path,” he said. The “WTO Panel on Defining the Future of Trade” will meet several times in 2012. The first meeting of the group will be on 16 May in Geneva. The panellists are: Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (Jordan); Sharan Burrow (Belgium); Helen Clark (USA); Thomas J. Donohue (USA); Frederico Fleury Curado (Brazil); Mr Victor K. Fung (China); Pradeep Singh Mehta (India); Festus Gontebanye (Botswana); Josette Sheeran, Vice Chairman (Switzerland); Jürgen R. Thumann (Belgium); George Yeo (Singapore); and. Fujimori Yoshiaki (Japan). Trade growth to slow in 2012 On 12 April the WTO released its report on “World Trade 2011, Prospects for 2012 – Trade growth to slow in 2012 after strong deceleration in 2011”. According to the WTO, world trade expanded in 2011 by 5.0%, a sharp deceleration from the 2010 rebound of 13.8%, and growth will slow further still to 3.7% in 2012. They attributed the slowdown to the global economy losing momentum due to a number of shocks, including the European sovereign debt crisis. The main points of the report are (i) At 5.0%, trade growth slows in 2011 following 13.8% rebound in 2010; (ii) Further slowing to 3.7% in 2012, below the 5.4% 20-year average; (iii) Fragility and uncertainty remain, with enhanced downside risk; (iv) Shocks held back trade last year: European debt crisis, Japanese tsunami, and Thai floods; (v) Disasters hit supply chains and production in China and elsewhere; (vi) The European Union (EU) may already be in recession as global output growth eases; (vii) Oil supply disruption in Libya cut African export growth by 8%; (viii) Growth in manufactured goods trade slowed by the fourth quarter, trade in automotive products fell to single digits and electronics trade declined; and (ix) Arab spring uprisings also hit African services exports due to sharp declines in Egypt, Tunisia.
