Get International Trade Update, January-February 2011 - Trade

Over the past 20 years, the growth of world trade has averaged 6 percent per year, twice as fast as world output.

When measured in US dollars, global trade growth slowed after the global financial crisis in 2008–09 and declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic in 2020. But since then trade has rebounded to the highest value ever.

Over the first three months of 2023, trade in goods went up by 1.9% from the last quarter of 2022, adding about $100 billion. Global services trade also increased by about $50 billion, up by about 2.8% compared to the previous quarter.

Freight Facts and Figures 2011 Canada is this country's top trading partner followed by China and Mexico. China's share of trade with the United States more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, from about 6 percent of total merchandise trade to 14 percent.

World trade values today have ballooned by almost 400 times from 1950 levels. Volume and value graphs below show trade picking up steeply since the establishment of the WTO in 1995. As of 2022, world trade volume and value have expanded 4% and 6% respectively on average since 1995, when the WTO was first established.

The integration of national economies into a global economic system has been one of the most important developments of the last century. This process of integration, often called Globalization, has materialized in a remarkable growth in trade between countries.

Up to 1870, the sum of worldwide exports accounted for less than 10% of global output. Today, the value of exported goods around the world is close to 25%. This shows that over the last hundred years of economic growth, there has been more than proportional growth in global trade.

Overall, the value of global trade is expected to be about 25 per cent higher in 2022 than it was in 2019. A substantial part of the increase in the value of trade during the last two years can be explained by rising commodity prices and more recently by general inflation. Trade volumes grew to a smaller extent.