On the evening of July 8, the WTO released “The World Trade Outlook Indicator” in Shanghai. The Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng was invited to attend the meeting and delivered a speech. He said that the World Trade Outlook Indicator would become a new important wind indicator of global trade.

Gao Hucheng congratulated the release of the World Trade Outlook Indicator at first and thanked the WTO Secretariat for doing the related work.

Gao pointed out that a leading indicator is an important gauge for economic analysis and decision. The WTO complied with the demands of all the parties, collected the official data of the G20 members and the statistical data of the international organizations, and formed the World Trade Outlook Indicator through scientific analysis. The indicator is of great representativeness, and is an important leading indicator in the field of international trade, providing a new tool for studying and judging the trend of the global trade. Used together with the trend and prediction of the global trade, the World Trade Outlook Indicator would help the governments of the countries to take targeted measures timely, so as to promote the sustainable and stable development of global trade.

The WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo attended the meeting and said he was glad to release the World Trade Outlook Indicator before the G20 Ministers Meeting and made it a part of the achievements of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting 2016. During the G20 meetings in China, the importance of trade and investment was promoted largely. It is China’s strong support that guaranteed the release of the indicator. Against the background of the slow recovery of the world economy, it is of great significance for the WTO to release the World Trade Outlook Indicator. The indicator gives early signals for the short-term development trend of the world trade, providing the trade policies formulator and the business circle with timely international trade information as well as the important reference to the decision makers.

The Chief Economist of the WTO Secretariat Robert Koopman answered the questions from the journalists on the specific issues of the World Trade Outlook Indicator.