The 2026 edition of the WTO's Public Forum kicked off on 15 September in Geneva under the theme Powering the Future. Over three days, the Forum will welcome more than 4,600 participants from business, governments, civil society, academia and international organizations to discuss how trade in (...)
The 2026 edition of the World Trade Report – issued on 15 September - finds that a strengthened multilateral trading system could increase global GDP by roughly 3% or USD 3 trillion by 2050, while inaction to modernize the trading system could reduce global output by up to 10%. The flagship (...)
Hundreds of participants gathered at the WTO for World Trade & Tech Day on 14 September, a sign of how AI is fundamentally changing the way cross-border commerce is evolving. Under the banner of "AI and Trade: Turning Potential into Progress", the day consisted of a full day of panel (...)
The WTO Secretariat launched a new publication on the role of stablecoins in supporting cross-border trade on 14 September on the sidelines of the WTO's first World Trade and Tech Day. The report, prepared by the Economic Research and Statistics Division and the Trade in Services and Investment (...)
On 9 September 2026, the Russian Federation notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards regarding the initiation on 7 September 2026 of a safeguard investigation on certain flat steel products with polymer coating imported into the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic (...)
Global goods trade continued to strengthen in mid-2026 despite persistent geopolitical and policy-related uncertainties, according to the WTO Goods Trade Barometer released on 9 September 2026.
The WTO published today (9 September) its 2026 Annual Report, providing a comprehensive account of the organization’s activities in 2025 and the early part of 2026. The Report looks back at recent key events, such as the 14th Ministerial Conference in March 2026, and describes the WTO's work in (...)
A new report by the WTO Secretariat, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank examines how digital trade is transforming the way Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) economies connect to international markets and identifies opportunities to unlock further growth, inclusion and (...)
On 2 September 2026, Madagascar notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it had initiated on 31 August 2026 a safeguard investigation on imports of hulled rice, semi-whitened or whitened rice, polished or glazed, and broken (...)
Global trade opens opportunities for economic growth. However, moving goods across borders, between exporters and importers, involves counterparty risk such as payment and liquidity risk. Trade finance facilitates trade by mitigating these risks.Using a new dataset, we find that volatile global (...)