Trade monitoring reports

Some WTO members applied new trade-restrictive measures in 2013 but countries generally resisted domestic pressures to erect trade barriers. The new measures added to the existing stock of trade restrictions and distortions. Global economic growth remained slow and uneven and this weighed heavily on world trade flows. The volume of world merchandise trade is expected to have grown by 2.5 per cent in 2013 and to grow by 4.5 per cent in 2014, which remains below historical trends.