Brussels, 18/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The WTO is concerned about the growing number of trade restrictions imposed by the G20 economies. Removing these restrictions remains a slow process.
In contrast to their commitment - taken at the Los Cabos summit (Mexico) in June 2012 - not to damage trade but to support world growth, the major world economies of the G20 (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the EU) adopted over 100 restrictive measures between mid-September 2012 and mid-May 2013. The measures cover around 0.5% of G20 merchandise imports and nearly 0.4% of world merchandise imports, according to a joint report by the WTO, the OECD and UNCTAD that was published on 17 June.
Most of the measures are increases in customs duties resulting from anti-dumping investigations. With 18, 15 and 10 measures adopted respectively over the last nine months, Brazil, India and Argentina dominate the ranking of the G20 countries that have put up new barriers to trade. Industrial products are affected by 77.1% of the new barriers and agricultural products by 22.9%.
While keeping a sense of proportion on the damage that is caused by the new measures adopted by the G20 (the cost of which is estimated at €16 billion), the report nevertheless deplores the fact that only 19% of all the protectionist measures taken since the start of the crisis in October 2008 have been removed.
The WTO therefore urges the G20 to take constructive measures to take advantage of the possibilities that exist to strengthen world trade, while ensuring a successful outcome of the 9th ministerial conference of the WTO in Bali at the beginning of December. World trade will only progress by 3.3% in 2013 - which is more than the 2% in 2012 but well below the 5% average annual growth over the last 20 years. (EH/transl.fl)