Turning headwinds for trade into tailwinds.

• Date: 01 October 2018
• Author: Gonzalez, Arancha

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...