Global trade grew by about $300 billion in the first half of the year thanks to US imports and EU exports, the UN said.

Despite the trade war that US President Donald Trump sparked with his massive tariffs, global trade grew by about 1.7% compared to the second half of 2024.

This was stated by Alessandro Nicita, an economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), AFP reported.

“But ongoing political uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and signs of a slowdown in global growth pose a risk to trade in the second half of the year,” UNCTAD said in a statement.

“The large increase in US imports is due to the pre-accumulation of goods: US companies accumulated stocks of goods before the tariffs came into force on April 5,” Nicita said.

Trade in services remains the “main driver” of growth, the report said.

Global trade grew by about 1.5% in the first quarter of 2025 and is expected to accelerate to about 2% in the second quarter.

“Advanced economies outperformed emerging economies in the first quarter of 2025, reversing recent trends that had favored the global South,” the report said.

“The change is due to a 14% increase in US imports and a 6% increase in European Union exports.”

However, imports to developing countries fell by 2%.

The trade imbalances that Trump cited as the reason for imposing large-scale tariffs "have deepened over the past four quarters, with the US recording a larger deficit while China and the European Union recorded growing surpluses," the report added.

The new US tariffs, including those on steel and aluminum, “have increased the risk of trade fragmentation,” it said.

“Nevertheless, signs of resilience remain,” although they will depend on “policy clarity, geo-economic developments, and supply chain adaptability,” UNCTAD notes. | BGNES