{"id":16197,"title":"Global Trade Under Pressure","link":"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/de\/economy-security-trade\/global-trade-under-pressure\/","date":"15. September 2017","date_unix":1505454806,"date_modified_unix":1754484776,"date_iso":"2017-09-15T05:53:26+00:00","content":"
\"Shutterstock\/<\/a>
Shutterstock\/ anekoho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Global trade has been stagnating for some years now. One reason for this is the increase in protectionist policies<\/a>. This in turn is caused amongst other things by the growing dissatisfaction among citizens in developed economies regarding the impacts of international trade on their living conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Slowdown in global trade<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the last 50 years, global trade has expanded much more strongly than the world\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP). Even in the years after the fall of the \u201cIron Curtain\u201d, the growth rates for global export volumes were almost always higher than those for global GDP (see Figure 1). The exceptions here were just the years that had economic crises (2001: the bursting of the dotcom bubble, and 2008\/2009: the collapse of Lehman Brothers). Since 2012, however, exports have grown more slowly than the world\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Welthandel<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The slowdown in global trade becomes much clearer if we examine the difference between the annual growth rate for global exports and the growth rate for global GDP. Between 1990 and 2016 the growth rate for global exports was 2.1 percentage points higher on average than the global GDP growth rate (see Figure 2). Since 2012, the difference between export growth and GDP growth has been smaller than 2.1 percentage points, and sometimes even negative.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Welthandel<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The rise of protectionism<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are various reasons for the slowdown in global trade<\/a>. Many of them are relatively simple: the weak growth in many countries following the Lehmann bankruptcy, falling commodity prices and the trend towards a services economy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The increase in protectionism, however, creates a problem:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n