World's Merchandise Trade Grows 5.3% In January-March Ahead Of Tariff Hike By US: WTO

The world's merchandise trade grew by 5.3% year-on-year in the January-March quarter of 2025 as imports surged in North America in anticipation of higher tariffs in the US, the WTO said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sequentially, global goods trade rose by 3.6% in the first quarter of 2025.

Merchandise trade volume growth in the first quarter was stronger than the WTO's most recent forecast, but its economists expect the pace of expansion to slow later in the year as fully stocked inventories and higher tariffs weigh on import demand, it said.

It said that North America recorded the strongest quarter-on-quarter import growth of any region by far at 13.4%, followed by Africa at 5.1%, South and Central America and the Caribbean at 3.6%, the Middle East at 3 per cent, Europe at 1.3%, and Asia at 1.1%.

The strongest performance was in office and telecom equipment, followed by chemicals and clothing.