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Sustainable trade

Third quarter 2020 trade in services


Published 09 March 2021 | 1 minute read

The quarterly publication of the WTO provides key statistics on trade in services in the Asia and the Pacific region.

The report states that the world trade in commercial services fell by 24% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020, followed by a record 30% drop in the second quarter of 2020.

Services trade remained depressed across all regions. Services exports in the third quarter of 2020 were down 29% in North America, 26% in Asia and 18% in Europe on a year-on-year basis. Other regions declined even further, with exports dropping 41%. Imports also declined sharply with North American commercial services imports falling by 32%, Asia by 26%, Europe by 18% and other regions 41%.

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

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