International Trade: Still Flourishing Against All Odds? Evaluation Note / M. Sait Akman

G20 agenda is full of items that aim to respond to multiple crisis and challenges: the need for a sustainable economic recovery, food and energy crisis, climate change, and now the Russia-Ukraine war and its repercussions in global system. G20 also faces long-standing issue of reforming the multilateral system, including the need for a more functioning and effective trading system and the WTO.

The global trading system suffers under a severe pressure as many countries increasingly seek to implement unilateral trade policy measures, and beggar-thy-neighbour industrial policies with the aim of addressing their economic problems. Trade policy is becoming too much politicised under short-sighted security considerations, although it is commonly admitted that trade is an engine of growth and helps to support employment.

Sait Akman, Director of TEPAV G20 Studies Centre had a pre-G20 Bali Summit analysis regarding international trade.

You may read evaluation note from here.

This note was originally published in Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) webpage on November 14, 2022.