Developments in international trade over the last year and beyond, including those related to NAFTA and the TPP, implications of Brexit on trade, and more recently, the risk of triggering trade wars through unjustified tariffs, combine to drive a call for informed, fact-based and thoughtful dialogue. Trumped-up justifications based on alleged national security concerns set a dangerous precedent, putting at risk the progress achieved over decades in advancing rules-based trade to which most of the globe adheres today.
The benefits of international trade are currently the subject of debate in various contexts, however, it has long been demonstrated that, even with its systemic imperfections which must be acknowledged, trade has been a powerful driver for economic value creation, inclusion and poverty reduction, as well as peace and security.
Trade has, until the peak of the global crisis, grown at rates that exceed the pace of global GDP growth, and thus has also been referenced as a driver of growth of the global economy.