Overview of Developments in the International Trading Environment - Annual Report by the Director-General (2011)

Lamy calls for trade opening to continue as global economic outlook worsens: Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his annual report to WTO members on developments in the international trading environment, published on 21 November 2011, told members that “in a context of greater economic uncertainty and rising global risks, it is all the more important that the process of global trade opening continues”. In the light of a worsening of the global economy in recent months, with the forecast for world export growth revised downwards to 5.8% in 2011, he warned that unilateral action to shield domestic industries will not solve global problems but might make things worse by triggering a spiral of tit-for-tat reactions in which every country will lose.