Geneva: The latest edition of World Trade Organization’s annual publication on international trade statistics, the “World Trade Statistical Review” has described the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.
The report released on July 30, 2021 presents recent trends in world trade and seeks to provide statistical insights on the trade impact of COVID-19. It highlights that the value of world merchandise exports declined by 8 per cent while services trade contracted by 21 per cent in 2020, with the most severe impacts of the pandemic being felt in the second quarter of the year. It says that trade began to recover as of mid-2020, but with major differences across regions and sectors. The recovery of merchandise trade was mostly due to trade in manufactured goods while services trade continues to be weighed down by continued COVID-19-related travel restrictions.
The effect of COVID-19 on goods and services differed, with services more severely affected. Services declined by 30 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 compared with a fall of 23 per cent for goods in the same period. While lockdowns led to the cancellation of flights, holidays abroad, restaurant meals, and cultural/recreational activities, the demand for essential goods held up in all major economies. Unlike goods, services cannot be stockpiled, which means that most of the revenue losses are likely to be permanent. As businesses adjusted to new working conditions and vaccines began to be rolled out in the last quarter of 2020, trade in goods saw a recovery of 1 per cent compared with its pre-pandemic level in Q4 of 2019.
In an introduction to the publication, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says: “Extreme poverty and hunger are on the rise, and employment is well below the pre-crisis trend…A full recovery for international travel, and for global trade in general, depends on rapid, equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world.”
The report’s analytical chapters are complemented by numerous statistical tables providing a detailed breakdown of various aspects of merchandise trade and trade in commercial services.
The merchandise trade data in the report were compiled in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) while commercial services data were jointly produced with UNCTAD and in cooperation with the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the United Nations Statistics Division.
– global bihari bureau
