Turning headwinds for trade into tailwinds.

• Author: Gonzalez, Arancha
• Position: MESSAGE FROM - Editorial

There is no doubt that 2018 has been a tumultuous year for global trade. It has been marked by trade tensions among the economies responsible for the majority of global exports and imports: China, the European Union and the United States. And by threats to weaken or even dismantle the World Trade Organization, the multilateral trade body.

Tariffs and counter-tariffs, and threats of more to come, have dominated news headlines. The measures and uncertainty are impacting those that actually make the trade world go around: companies in developed and developing countries alike.

All this is counterproductive. The effective working of the multilateral trading system was not just a critical factor in the rapid poverty reduction of the past forty years; keeping markets broadly open enabled the world to return to growth after the 2008 financial crisis. Protectionism and short-term policy is threating to undo all this.

The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union also left its mark on 2018. While the last weeks of the year underscored that much remains to be settled about Brexit --scheduled to take effect on 29 March 2019 --the process will continue to have profound effects on European countries in the coming months and beyond.

These events should not be allowed to overshadow the ways in which 2018 was also a good year for international cooperation on trade.

At an African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda, in March, African leaders signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The accord shows that for most countries, collaboration and integration are seen as the most viable path towards more sustainable economic growth. (See Pages 10-12 and 14-15.)

Once it enters into force, the AfCFTA will build an integrated market for the cross-border movement of goods, services, people...