WTO DG-Risks To Stability From Food Prices, Trade Division

Director General of the World Trade Organisation Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has stated in a press release that there are risks posed to social and political stability by rising food prices in poorer nations and the separation of the global economy into rival blocs.

• Okonjo-Iweala: ""Smaller supplies and higher prices for food mean that the world's poor could be forced to do without. This must not be allowed to happen. This is not the time to turn inward...History teaches us that dividing the world economy into rival blocs and turning our backs on the poorest countries leads neither to prosperity nor to peace. "
• The WTO has revised down its forecast for trade volume growth, primarily due to the impact of the war in Ukraine, stating that it "now expects merchandise trade volume growth of 3.0% in 2022—down from its previous forecast of 4.7%—and 3.4% in 2023, but these estimates are less certain than usual due to the fluid nature of the conflict...Given current GDP assumptions, merchandise trade volume growth in 2022 could be as low as 0.5% or as high as 5.5%"
• Full press release: https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres22_e/pr902_...