Big challenge for global trade

Global trade is facing many major challenges in the context of economic difficulties, the trend of trade restrictions between countries is increasing, while the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is at risk of being narrowed. Building a free, open, and fair trade environment has become an urgent task discussed at the APEC Trade Ministers' Meeting recently held in the US.

Trade ministers from member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Detroit, USA, failed to issue a joint statement after two days of meetings. APEC Trade Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to a rules-based multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its core.

In a chair's statement summarizing the discussions, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai stressed that: "We reaffirm our determination to provide a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, inclusive and predictable trade and investment environment."

Unloading goods at Qingdao port, Shandong province, China.

Creating a free trade environment like the one above has become an urgent task not only for APEC member economies, but also for all countries in the world in the context of global trade facing many difficulties and major challenges. A thorny issue that has recently arisen is that trade "barriers" are negatively impacting the world's trade environment.

A recently released WTO report said that countries are introducing trade restrictions at an increasing pace, especially on food, feed and fertilizers. Of the 78 restrictions on food, feed and fertilizers introduced since the end of February 2022, 57 are still in effect, affecting about $56.6 billion in trade, and these numbers have increased since mid-October 2022.

In addition, trade lawsuits are also on the rise. Right at the time of the APEC Trade Ministers Meeting, the WTO announced that Argentina had initiated proceedings to sue the United States regarding pipes used in oil production. Argentina requested consultations on Washington's use of anti-dumping measures on pipes originating from this South American country, and this is Argentina's third complaint on the above issue.

Meanwhile, the trade war between the US and China that broke out in mid-2018 has not yet ended and continues to negatively impact the world trade environment. On the sidelines of the APEC Trade Ministers' Meeting mentioned above, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

Although China's Xinhua News Agency said the two sides had frank, practical and in-depth exchanges on bilateral trade and economic relations, analysts are still concerned that the two powers will not soon find common ground on trade issues.

During the meeting, Tai stressed the need to address serious economic and trade imbalances, and raised concerns about China's actions against U.S. companies operating there, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said in a statement.

As the US-China trade relationship has plummeted and trade sanctions have increased, the role of the WTO has become increasingly obscure. WTO reform has become an urgent issue raised at WTO, G20, APEC conferences, etc. in recent years. However, the process of reforming the WTO so that this organization can maintain its role as a "balance-holder" seems to be "stuck in place", despite progress in mid-2022. Faced with such difficult problems and the difficult world economic situation, global trade growth remains stagnant.

In a report last April, economists said global trade growth would only reach 1.7% in 2023.

The WTO also assessed that the global trade picture in 2023 is gloomy mainly due to high inflation, the conflict in Ukraine has not cooled down, the fragile supply chain continues, the US tightening monetary policy is affecting areas such as housing, automobile manufacturing and investment...

According to Nhan Dan Newspaper

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