WTO PREDICTS SLUGGISH GROWTH IN WORLD TRADE IN 2003

WTO PREDICTS SLUGGISH GROWTH IN WORLD TRADE IN 2003    The World Trade Organization issued a cautious forecast on global trade growth for this year, saying that downside risks are hindering a potential return to previous rates of growth.
   “Considerable uncertainty clouds trade growth prospects for 2003,” the Geneva-based trade body said on Wednesday. “Early indications suggest that at less than 3 percent, growth in trade volume for 2003 will be little or no better than 2002.”
   The WTO pointed out that these forecast figures are below half the average rate of trade growth experienced in the 1990s, when growth averaged 6.7 percent a year.
   “The downside risks on predictions for 2003 are large, bearing in mind continued sluggishness in the world economy, the conflict in Iraq, and the possibility of the continuing spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome,” the WTO commented.
   Supachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of the WTO, said that the latest trade figures “reflect the growing economic and political uncertainty in the world today.” He urged governments to accelerate work on the Doha round of WTO trade negotiations.
   Statistics published by the WTO show that trade recovered in 2002. Driven by strong demand in the United States and the big Asian economies, merchandise trade grew by 2.5 percent in 2002, up from a 1 percent decline in 2001, according to the latest WTO figures.
   But trade growth in 2002 was uneven and masked the sluggish trade performance in many regions, including Latin America and Western Europe.