WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Photo: VNA)

For 2025, the WTO raised its forecast for global trade volume growth from 0.9% to 2.4%. However, as the effects of US tariff barriers begin to take hold, the outlook for 2026 is bleaker, with trade growth expected to reach just 0.5%, a sharp decline from the previously projected 1.8%.

The WTO forecasts an increase in global economic growth of 2.7% in 2025 and 2.6% in 2026. This year, the WTO has had to revise its trade and economic growth forecasts multiple times, a rare occurrence, due to the uncertainties stemming from the constantly changing tariff policies of the Trump administration.

Since returning to office in January, President Trump has implemented multiple rounds of tariff hikes on goods imported into the US, disrupting global supply chains and investment activities.