Trade monitoring reports

Four comprehensive reports were presented by the Director-General on global trade developments, in January, April, July and November 2009. These were discussed at various meetings of the Trade Policy Review Body (TPR B). The reports showed that, despite the depth of the crisis and rising unemployment, WTO members had, by and large, resisted domestic protectionist pressures and kept markets open. Nor was there any significant instance of trade retaliation. Nevertheless, there were aspects of countries’ stimulus packages that threatened to distort trade, notably ‘buy national’ policies attached to some public spending programmes and the substantial help given by some governments to the banking and auto industries.