International trade should expand in 2010. - After the sharpest decline in more than 70 years, world trade is set to rebound in 2010 and to grow by 9.5%, according to the latest report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). WTO Director General Pascal Lamy explains that the organisation's rules and principles have assisted governments in keeping markets open and they now provide a platform from which trade can grow as the global economy improves. It is, however, necessary to avoid derailing any economic revival through protectionism. The WTO expects that exports from developed economies will increase by 7.5% in volume terms over the course of the year while shipments from the rest of the world (including developing economies and the Commonwealth of Independent States) should rise by around 11% as the world emerges from recession. This strong expansion will help recover some, but by no means all, of the ground lost in 2009 when the global economic crisis sparked a 12.2% contraction in the volume of global trade - the largest such decline since World War II. Should trade continue to expand at its current pace, the economists predict, it would take another year for trade volumes to surpass the peak level of 2008. The trade slump in 2009 was made worse by the fact that it was synchronised with exports and imports from all countries slumping at the same time, with no region being spared, the WTO states. The volume of goods exports fell in 2009 by: -13.9% for the United States; -14.8% for the European Union; and -24.9% for Japan. This is more than the global average (-12.2%). The lowest contraction rates were recorded by the oil exporting countries of the Middle East (-4.9%), Africa (-5.6%) and South America/Central America (-5.7%). Asia (-11.1%) and China (-10.5%) also saw their exports fall, albeit only slightly less than the global average. The contrary situation was true for imports. Two regions that had the strongest contraction were oil exporters - the Commonwealth of Independent States (-20.2%) and South America/Central America (-16.5%). Among the other countries, the United States (-16.5%) and the European Union (-14.5%) have recorded a fall above the global average (-12.9%), while in Japan, the fall (-12.8%) was almost equivalent to the world rate. (I.L./transl.jl)