The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has disclosed that despite certain policy uncertainties, particularly the changing trade tariffs by the United States government, 72 per cent of world trade still remained under the supervisory monitoring of the organisation.
She made this disclosure this in Abuja at the 7th Africa Emerging Markets Forum, which was jointly organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Emerging Markets Forum (EMF) and the Centre for the Study of Economies of Africa (CSEA).
According to the WTO boss, in modern terms, the world merchandise trade grew by 4.6 per cent as surging demand for AI-related goods continued to offset weaknesses linked to tariff increases and trade policy uncertainties in the rapidly changing global economic landscape.
Okonjo-Iweala clarified: “Services trade grew by 5.3 per cent again in modern terms, and within that, trading digitally delivered services grew even faster, at almost six per cent.
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“Most countries continue to trade on rules-based WTO terms. Around 72 per cent of global goods trade continues to flow on core WTO-most-favoured-nation tariffs.
“An additional 16 per cent goes on terms within the wider WTO framework, mostly tariff preferences arising from bilateral and regional trade agreements that are built on WTO foundations”, she added.
The renowned economist and former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, disclosed that global goods trade volumes in 2025 were over 12 per cent higher than in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, while services trade volumes also surged by 31 per cent.
According to her, countries are responding to the Strait of Hormuz crisis through enhanced trade-facilitatiion than trade-restrictive measures.
Okonjo-Iweala maintained that many countries were lifting trade restrictions and facilitating trade in oil and gas products by exploring alternative routes to get oil and fertiliser out of the region.
She said: “These measures have not been enough to compensate for the closure of the strait, which has hit the world, and especially vulnerable African countries with higher energy, fertiliser and food prices.
“They have not built resilience and prevented a situation that could have been considerably worse for the global economy.
“On the whole, while active strategic competition is affecting some sensitive products and bilateral relationships, the repeal practice of most countries seems to be for continued interdependence, albeit within concentric circles of relatively closer or looser integration”, the WTO boss added.
She said that the Global South offered a case in point as the share of South-South trade in the global total had increased from under one-tenth in 1995 to about a quarter today.
Okonjo-Iweala expatiated: “They are keeping their trade diplomats busy. Of the 384 existing regional trade agreements that have been formally notified to the WTO, 49 per cent are among developing countries.
“Among the eight additional agreements that have not been notified, the South-South share appears to be even higher, and 22 economies still outside the 166 from the WTO are working hard to accede to it”, she added.
