At an event in London on 10 June, Deputy Director-General DJ Nordquist emphasized that the WTO continues to provide the foundation for the large majority of global trade, even as the trading system adapts to new technologies, shifting supply chains and geopolitical uncertainty.
She also stressed the importance of advancing WTO reform while preserving the predictability and transparency on which businesses depend. DDG Nordquist spoke at the launch of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre’s Future of Trade Report 2026.
According to her, at a time when businesses, governments, and international organizations are all grappling with profound change, initiatives like this one make an important contribution by helping us look beyond the immediate headlines and think more strategically about where global trade is heading.
For her there is certainly no shortage of issues to discuss. She listed the following:
- Artificial intelligence is transforming production, services, and trade operations.
- Supply chains are adapting to geopolitical tensions, which includes dealing with good ol’ fashioned geography, not just technology.
- New technologies are changing how goods move, how services are delivered, and how firms compete.
“Taken together, these developments raise important questions about the future of world trade and the institutions that underpin it,” she said.
The WTO boss added: “The headlines often focus on fragmentation, de-risking, and frictions. Yet the data tell a more nuanced story. Global trade in goods and services expanded by approximately 4.7% in 2025, significantly above the rate of global economic growth (2.9%) – almost double — and a significantly better performance than even our own economists had predicted (-0.2%). While our economists expect merchandise trade growth to slow to 1.9% in 2026, trade is projected to expand again to 2.6% in 2027. As you can tell, it’s pretty hard to model something predicated on geonomic variables.
“Among institutions governing international trade, the WTO is sometimes portrayed (including in your report) as struggling to keep pace. This narrative is understandable, but it is also incomplete.
“In fact, to quote the great American humorist Mark Twain, reports of the WTO’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. If one looks only at the difficulty of negotiating new agreements, it is easy to conclude that the system is under strain. Yet if one looks at how governments and businesses actually behave, a different picture emerges. The WTO today has 166 Members accounting for the overwhelming majority of global trade. Not a single Member has ever chosen to leave the Organization, while more than 20 governments are currently negotiating accession – they want in. Whatever criticisms governments may have of specific aspects of the system, they continue to see value in membership.”
The trade data tell a similar story. Despite the rapid growth of bilateral and regional trade agreements over the past three decades, approximately 72 percent of global merchandise trade still takes place on most-favoured-nation terms under WTO rules. Regional agreements undoubtedly play an important role but they are built upon a multilateral framework that continues to provide the foundation for global commerce. The WTO remains the baseline.
Within the WTO itself, groups of Members have been advancing new initiatives through plurilateral approaches, including recent agreements on services domestic regulation, investment facilitation for development, and e-commerce. Many Members see them as a pragmatic way of advancing rule-making in areas where broad consensus among the full Membership may be difficult to achieve. Together, these developments demonstrate that the trading system is adapting to new realities rather than paralysis…
