WTO members have continued to show some restraint in introducing new trade-restrictive measures and have also adopted a record number of trade facilitation measures during the period of October 2014 to October 2015 according to the Director-General’s annual report on trade-related developments. However, the report, which was discussed at the 9 December meeting of the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB), raises concerns over the increase in the stockpile of trade-restrictive measures recorded since 2008.
During the period under review, the rate at which new trade-restrictive measures were introduced was stable at roughly 15 new measures per month, comparable to the previous period. Members also implemented 222 new trade-facilitating measures over this period or an average of almost 19 measures per month, the second-highest number since the beginning of the monitoring exercise in 2008. Nevertheless, only 25% of the restrictive measures recorded since October 2008 have been eliminated. Thus, the stockpile of restrictions has now risen to 2,557 as of October 2015, up 17% from the previous period.
This has been excerpted from a 9 December 2015 news release by the World Trade Organization and is available in its entirety at:
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news15_e/trdev_09dec15_e.htm