WTO Notes Uptick in Trade Restrictions From G20 Nations

Restrictive trade measures from 20 of the world's leading economies "significantly increased" over the past year, the World Trade Organization found in its 31st Trade Monitoring Report. While the Group of 20 countries also imposed 141 trade facilitating measures, the report said that from October 2023 to October 2024, G20 nations imposed 91 new trade-restrictive measures covering around $828.9 billion worth of goods, up from about $246 billion worth of goods in the last report, which covered restrictions imposed from mid-May to mid-October 2023.

The measures mostly cover import restrictions, though 22 of the measures covered exports. The WTO said this is "markedly below the annual average of around 50 new measures over the past 3 years, and closer to the pre-pandemic average." The export controls covered around $230.8 billion worth of goods, representing 1.3% of the value of exports from G20 nations, which includes the U.S., the EU, the U.K., China and others. However, the number of export restrictions on "food, feed and fertilizers put in place and not withdrawn since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine" dropped to 70, the WTO said.

G20 economies opened an average of 25.4 trade remedy investigations per month during the review period, marking the end of the "slowdown observed between 2021 and 2023."