WTO Trade Monitoring Update Reveals Sharp Rise in Tariffs, Trade Coverage

Strategic Insights -

The World Trade Organization's latest Trade Monitoring Update has highlighted a volatile and unpredictable global trade landscape due to a sharp rise in new tariffs and trade-related actions between October 2024 and May 2025. Despite these challenges, the report notes an encouraging trend of dialogue and negotiations towards resolving trade-related differences. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala emphasized the need for members to engage in a WTO-consistent approach and address the underlying problems through deep WTO reform.

Key Takeaways:

  • The WTO Trade Monitoring Update records a total of 644 trade measures on goods undertaken by WTO members and observers between mid-October 2024 and mid-May 2025.
  • Trade remedy initiations and terminations accounted for 296 measures, but their trade coverage was narrow, covering only 0.26% of world merchandise trade.
  • The report highlights a sharp increase in tariff measures, with the value of global merchandise trade covered by new tariffs and other such measures implemented during the seven-month review period estimated at $2,732.7 billion, triple the amount in the previous report.
  • The increase in trade coverage by new tariff measures represents the highest level recorded in one reporting period since 2009.
  • Since 2009, many trade measures have been introduced and never withdrawn, giving rise to a growing stockpile of measures that have affected between 10-12.5% of world merchandise imports, now jumping to 19.4% as of mid-May.
  • The US-China agreement on 14 May 2025 curtailed certain mutual tariff hikes, and subsequent talks in London on 11 June, demonstrate an intensifying engagement in pursuit of negotiated solutions.
  • The WTO Secretariat estimates that the stockpile of trade measures in force as of mid-May 2025 was valued at $4,604.1 billion, with 83% of the trade coverage linked to developments since early 2025.
  • In the services sector, 69 new measures were adopted by 34 members and four observers, a significant decrease compared to 2024, but still demonstrating members' commitment to facilitating services trade.
  • Economic support measures, such as subsidies and state aid, have remained a key component of industrial policies, but their relative use has declined since April 2025, overtaken by regulatory tools focused on broader objectives like climate change mitigation.

Statistics:

  • The value of trade covered by new tariffs and other measures between October 2024 and May 2025: $2,732.7 billion.
  • The increase in trade coverage by tariff measures in 2025: $2,261.3 billion, or 83% of the total trade coverage.
  • The trade coverage of trade-facilitating measures introduced during the review period: $1,038.6 billion.
  • The stockpile of tariff increases and other import measures in force as of May 2025: $4,604.1 billion.
  • The percentage of world merchandise imports covered by trade measures: 19.4% as of mid-May 2025.
  • The number of trade measures on goods undertaken by WTO members and observers: 644.

Sources:

  • WTO Trade Monitoring Update, released on 3 July 2025.
  • Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General, quoted in the Trade Monitoring Update.