The World Trade Organization (WTO) has issued a warning that container trade is experiencing capacity restructuring and market uncertainty, and global trade volume will decline this year (2025).
The WTO report emphasizes that market uncertainty and accumulating economic negatives may have an adverse impact on the global container trade market.
As major economies struggle with tariffs, the least developed countries (LDCs) will benefit from economic uncertainty, increasing agricultural and clothing trade with the United States,
And these trades are usually completed by Chinese exporters. Counterintuitively, recent tariff increases and uncertainty are expected to weigh on LDC merchandise trade flows in 2025,
with export growth rising to 5.5% in the revised forecast from 3.5% in the (WTO) baseline forecast.
4.8%. The World Trade Organization's adjusted forecast also sees imports from the least developed countries increasing to 7.6% from the baseline of 7.0%.
In terms of major trade, tariffs on China will have a significant impact on trade with Europe and the United States. The WTO believes that trade policy uncertainty will drag down trade growth,
and global merchandise trade is expected to decrease by 0.2% this year.
Trade disruptions between the U.S. and China are expected to trigger a redirection of freight to other markets, with the WTO report saying Chinese merchandise exports to all regions
outside North America are expected to rise by 4% to 9%. Given the fast-changing nature of the situation, the WTO said its forecasts were based on the situation as of April 14,
and warned that a further deterioration in trade relations could lead to a 1.5% contraction in merchandise trade in 2025.
News from Shipping and Trade Weekly
