POSITION | EXTERNAL ECONOMIC POLICY | GLOBAL TRADE
The WTO Between MC12 and MC13: Deepened Private Sector Engagement and Plurilateral Initiatives
February 2023 Average trade effect of WTO membership is…
50 %
…larger than the effect of all Regional Trade Agreements globally
206 %
Since WTO founding in 1995, Germany’s merchandise imports have increased annually…
and its merchandise exports have increased annually
55.9 %
…of extra-EU imports were conducted with MFN status in 2018.
212 %
Challenges Facing the WTO Together with its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs on Trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has contributed to the opening of markets and to the creation of fair rules to regulate trade between members. Despite the growth of regional and bilateral free trade agreements in the past few decades, WTO most-favored-nation (MFN) tariffs still regulate a larger share of extraEU trade. Membership in the organization has contributed extremely positive to the growth of German merchandise and services trade, and its rulemaking framework remains incomparable for many areas of global trade, including but limited to anti-dumping, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property and trade facilitation. However, the bedrock of the multilateral rules-based trading order finds itself recently significantly challenged. Elżbieta Kawecka-Wyrzykowska, “Importance and Motives of Preferential Trade Agreements in the EU's External Trade” in Economics and Business Review, 6(20), 3-22, <10.18559/ebr.2020.3.1> National Board of Trade Sweden, The trade effects of EU regional trade agreements – evidence and strategic choices, 2019, P. 3, <The trade effects of EU regional trade agreements – evidence and strategic choices (kommerskollegium.se)>. WTO Statistics, <WTO | International trade and tariff data>. Katherine Tepper | External Economic Policy | T: +49 30 2028-1499 | k.tepper@bdi.eu | www.bdi.eu Matthias Krämer | External Economic Policy | T: +49 30 2028-1562 | m.kraemer@bdi.eu | www.bdi.eu