ABSTRACT
Global trade policy trends and developments are monitored every six months through the WTO trade monitoring exercise. Initiated immediately after the onset of the financial crisis in 2008 to keep an eye on possible protectionist tendencies, the trade monitoring exercise has shown, somewhat contrary to protectionist sounding rhetoric that economies have, by and large, abstained from taking wide-ranging protectionist policies. The WTO Trade Monitoring Reports provide an official and factual account of the major developments and trends in trade policy implementation among WTO Members.
A decade has passed since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. Following a mandate from G20 Leaders, the WTO has produced regular trade monitoring reports since 2009, taking the temperature of global trade and major developments in trade policy-making. Ten years of monitoring later, and notwithstanding widespread anti-trade rhetoric, a protectionist backlash has not materialized. Although certain periods have seen considerable and worrying increases in the application of certain trade policy measures, the overall reality has been less alarmist. The chapter will provide the first in-depth attempt to draw conclusions based on trade policy trends over the past ten years and would delve deeper in the sectors most affected and countries most active during that period. The chapter will also provide a brief historical account of the trade monitoring reports, including the systemic, institutional, and political constraints that have shaped the exercise. Finally, the chapter will look at the challenges ahead for monitoring trade policy trends.
