How Protectionism is Reshaping Global Trade in 2025
How Protectionism is Reshaping Global Trade in 2025 I. A World Relearning Protectionism A. Global Trade in Early 2025: Tensions and Policy Shifts The dawn of 2025 has been anything but calm for global commerce. A palpable sense of unease permeates international markets, driven by a rapid succession of protectionist measures and escalating trade tensions. Esteemed bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have consistently sounded alarms, issuing downward revisions to global trade and economic growth forecasts for the year and beyond. As early as October 2024, the WTO reported a dramatic surge in new trade-restrictive measures, impacting an estimated USD 887.7 billion in trade—a significant jump from the USD 337.1 billion recorded the previous year. This set a decidedly tense stage for the year to come. The United States, under the second Trump administration, has emerged as a central architect of this new landscape. A flurry of tarif...