English

By Tang Guhan

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently released a report regarding the number of trade restrictions from mid-October 2017 to mid-May 2018.

The report shows the G20 economies have doubled their new trade-restrictive measures for the period from mid-October 2017 to mid-May 2018 when compared to the previous review period.

Meanwhile, the rate of trade-facilitating measures from the G20, on the other hand, grew slightly during the above period.

An aggregated 39 trade-restrictive measures, including tariff increases, stricter customs procedures, and the imposition of taxes and export duties were conducted by the G20 economies, as recorded by the WTO.

There were still 47 trade-facilitating measures, covering eliminated or reduced tariffs, simplified import and export customs procedures and import taxes cut, carried out by the G20 economies during the review period. However, the growth rate is lower than that of the trade-restrictive measures.

"The continued escalation of these trade measures poses a serious threat to economic growth and recovery in all countries… I urge the G20 leaders to show restraint in applying new measures and to de-escalate the situation urgently," said the WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo.

The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Republic of Korea, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union.

The G20 economies' initiations of investigations into trade remedy measures have slightly increased when compared with the previous review period. Moreover, these measures are not classified as either trade-restrictive or trade-facilitating measures by this report.

Iron, steel, plastics, and articles thereof, vehicles, parts and accessories thereof and products of iron and steel are the main sectors that were affected by these trade remedy initiations.