The World Trade Organization released a report on the 31st that last year's global trade performance was better than expected. It is expected that global trade will continue to rebound this year, and global trade in goods will increase by 8.0% and 4.0% respectively this year and next.

According to the annual "Global Trade Data and Prospects" report released by the WTO on the same day, from a regional perspective, affected by the large-scale fiscal stimulus policies of the United States, North America will become the main region that stimulates global demand for trade in goods in 2021; the volume of exported goods in Asia It is expected to grow by 8.4%, making it one of the fastest growing regions in the world.

The report shows that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, global trade in goods fell by 5.3% in 2020, but this performance was better than the World Trade Organization's forecast of a 9.2% decline in global trade in goods in October last year. The WTO believes that the good news about the new crown vaccine, the fiscal and monetary policies implemented by many economies, and the effective epidemic control measures implemented by China and other Asian economies and the containment of economic downturns have boosted global trade demand and avoided global trade. Fall into a more severe recession.

Specifically, in 2020, the Asian region will become the only region where the export volume of goods trade maintains a positive growth (0.3%), while China has become the world’s largest exporter and the second largest importer after the United States. Its import and export volume They accounted for 11.5% and 14.7% of the global total respectively.

The WTO warned that despite the positive short-term prospects for global trade, the regional differences in trade recovery, continued weakness in service trade, and the delayed vaccination of the new crown vaccine in the world, especially in poor countries, will increase the uncertainty of global trade prospects. The future development of the epidemic will still pose the greatest threat to trade recovery.

WTO Director-General Oconjo Iweala said at a press conference that day that keeping the international market open is essential for economies to recover from this crisis, and that the new crown vaccine is vaccinated quickly and fairly globally. It is a prerequisite for a strong and sustained recovery.

She said that if a large number of people and many countries cannot obtain enough new crown vaccines, it will curb global economic growth and may reverse the direction of global health and economic recovery. The international community must make full use of the power of trade to expand the possibility of obtaining vaccines.