{
  "id": 11781423,
  "title": "Global trade is shifting from globalisation to fragmentation",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/global-trade-is-shifting-from-globalisation-to-fragmentation",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-03T21:29:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Qatar Tribune Business",
    "slug": "qatar-tribune-business",
    "url": "https://www.qatar-tribune.com/article/257299/business/global-trade-is-shifting-from-globalisation-to-fragmentation"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Global trade has evolved through three distinct phases in the past two decades. During the early 2000s, trade integration accelerated rapidly as China joined the World Trade Organization, global value chains expanded, and trade costs fell. Emerging markets' share of global trade rose from around 25% to about 40%. However, after the 2008 global financial crisis, the pace of trade growth slowed, and the ratio of trade growth to global growth dropped from around two-to-one to around one-to-one. This period, dubbed \"slowbalisation,\" saw trade growth no longer outpacing global growth.\n\nIn recent years, the trading system has entered a more contentious phase marked by rising protectionism. The number of trade-restrictive measures introduced worldwide doubled from the 2010s to the 2020s, from around 3,000 per year to around 6,000 per year. New tariffs and other import measures have affected a record-high share of imports, the highest in over fifteen years. Trade policy uncertainty has risen sharply, with major economies engaging in tariff increases and retaliation, as well as pursuing industrial policy and supply-chain \"de-risking\" measures. This shift has led to trade fragmentation along geopolitical lines, with commerce increasingly directed toward more reliable partners.\n\nThe consequences of this shift are already apparent in the near-term outlook. World merchandise trade is expected to slow significantly after growing by nearly 3% in 2024. The World Trade Organization has warned that the spread of trade-restrictive measures and policy uncertainty poses the primary downside risk. Trade fragmentation is reshaping global commerce, increasing costs, and dampening efficiency and productivity over time. Despite these challenges, global trade has shown remarkable resilience, with new agreements being negotiated and supply chains being reconfigured rather than dismantled. However, the era of deepening, rules-based integration has given way to one in which trade is increasingly shaped by strategic and geopolitical considerations, with significant implications for global growth, prices, and development prospects, particularly for emerging economies reliant on open markets.",
  "summary": "Global trade was the driving economic force of the early twenty-first century. Between 2000 and 2024 world trade in goods and services nearly quadrupled, and the ratio of trade to...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Gulf Times Business",
        "title": "Global Trade shifts from globalization toward fragmentation : QNB",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/global-trade-shifts-from-globalization-toward-fragmentation-qnb",
        "published": "2026-10-03T05:56:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}