Trade

Source details

Open, stable, and transparent trade policies are key for economic growth and resilience and for addressing climate change, food security, and underdevelopment.
The Fund’s longstanding role in international trade and trade policy is rooted in its mandate and is delivered to countries through analysis and policy advice, complemented by lending and capacity development.
The 2023 Review of the Role of Trade in the Work of the Fund (April 3, 2023) outlines an agenda to reinvigorate the Fund’s role and sets priorities for future work, including:
- Analytical issues.
- Surveillance.
- Cooperation with other international organizations, especially the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The IMF and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have joint efforts to monitor changes in applied tariff duties.
Purpose: Improve transparency regarding tariff actions due to their trade and macroeconomic implications.
Dataset features:
- Records initial levels and changes in effective applied duties, along with their implementation dates, at the bilateral and product levels.
- Initially focuses on the policies of the largest trading countries and will eventually be extended.
- Covers all trading partners of these countries and all products at the chapter level of the Harmonized System.
- Continuously updated; consolidates information from WTO notifications, the WTO Trade Monitoring Database, and external media, in collaboration with the IMF.
Accessibility: The dataset is accessible via the WTO Tariff & Trade Data platform along with the Methodology Note.
Date referenced: May 13, 2025.

The Fund collaborates with the WTO, OECD, and World Bank Group on trade-related transparency and analysis.
Subsidy Platform:
- Joint effort by IMF, OECD, World Bank Group, and WTO to increase transparency on the use of subsidies across economies and sectors.
- Serves as a portal redirecting users to data and information separately hosted by the four institutions.
- Each organization uses its own definition, methodology, and coverage; users should account for these differences.
- Joint hosting does not constitute endorsement by the member organizations of particular information accessible through the portal.
PortWatch:
- Uses satellite-based vessel data and big data analytics to monitor trade disruptions from natural disasters.
- Allows monitoring of local and global spillovers from natural disasters by leveraging insights on the international trade network.

The State of Globalization conference (April 4-5, 2025, Tokyo) — co-organized by the IMF and the Center for Advanced Research in Finance at the University of Tokyo — examined technological change, trade and industrial policy activism, and geopolitical tensions affecting globalization.
Selected publications and commentary:
- Review of the Role of Trade in the Work of the Fund — April 3, 2023.
- How Countries Are Adapting as the Global Energy Shock Persists — October 1, 2026.
- Mehran Gul on the Innovation Blindspot — September 17, 2026.
- What Governments Should Do When Food Prices Surge — Dani Rodrik on Rethinking Development — September 10, 2026.
- Asia’s Next Growth Story — September 2, 2026.
- Ha-Joon Chang on Infant Industry Protection — September 1, 2026.

Second Joint Statement by the Heads of FAO, IMF, World Bank Group, WFP, and WTO on the Global Food Security and Nutrition Crisis — September 21, 2022.
Joint Statement: Heads of FAO, IMF, World Bank Group, WFP, and WTO on the Global Food Security Crisis — July 15, 2022.
Joint Statement: Heads of World Bank Group, IMF, WFP and WTO Call for Urgent Coordinated Action on Food Security — April 13, 2022.
WTO and IMF Joint Statement on Trade and the COVID-19 Response — April 24, 2020.