Many countries have implemented domestic stimulus packages aimed at protecting their businesses and industries, favouring domestic goods and services sometimes at the expense of imports. Policy-makers are perfectly aware that such policy actions have international implications – in the short term they can boost domestic demand but in the long term, they undermine the international trading system and global wealth and welfare.
Outlook for world trade for 2009 If we look at the prospects for world trade for 2009, we see that the World Bank has predicted that the volume of world trade in goods and services will decrease by around 6 percent.