Corona impacts on trading

                                               CORONA IMPACTS ON TRADING

 The Covid-19 virus is severely affecting international trade, creating a negative economic outlook. Consequently, the global economy is receiving its sharpest reversal since the Great Depression, IMF warns. “This is a crisis like no other,” suggests Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Never in the history of the IMF have we witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill,” she said. “It is way worse than the global financial crisis.”

A strong, shared, transparent information base is critical in underpinning sound national policy responses and the international co-operation to keep trade flowing. It will be critical that countries honour their commitments to notify trade-related measures taken in response to COVID-19 to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The OECD is sharing information on trade-related country actions on COVID-19 with WTO colleagues, and assessing the likely impact of these actions to help support policy makers dealing with the crisis.

Building on our annual Monitoring and Evaluation of Agricultural Policies we are tracking and assessing the impact of country measures in relation to agrifood production and trade in response to COVID-19. We are bringing this information to AMIS (Agricultural Market Information System), where we work with other international organisations and governments to ensure accurate, up-to-date information on market developments and country policies in critical commodities for the global food system.

Second, keep global supply chains going, especially for essentials

An important priority is keeping the key supply chains for essential goods for the crisis – including medical supplies, food products and ICT goods and services – open and functioning. However, we are starting to see a number of challenges to keeping these supply chains going related to the business of trade.