Global Trade and Japan:

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210401/p2g/00m/0bu/024000c

Article:

GENEVA (Kyodo) -- The volume of world merchandise trade is projected to rise 8 percent in 2021 from last year following a decline of 5.3 percent in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, the World Trade Organization said Wednesday.

The Geneva-based international body also forecast the growth of global trade volume to slow to 4 percent in 2022, falling below the pre-pandemic trend.

"COVID-19 continues to pose the greatest threat to the outlook for trade, as new waves of infection could easily undermine any hoped-for recovery," the WTO said in a press release.

Ideas:

After a down year in 2020, global trade as rebounded, especially in Japan and South Korea. As the two countries usually compete with the same kind of exports it can only be good news for both countries that global trade has come back so strong.

Of course cars and semiconductors are leading the way in both countries.

And the two biggest markets for both countries are China and the US.

And as we closer and into the summer months it seems the new virus variants are beginning to hit other places beside India, were the latest variant is coming from.

Article:

"Keeping international markets open will be essential for economies to recover from this crisis and a rapid, global and equitable vaccine roll-out is a prerequisite for the strong and sustained recovery we all need," WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was quoted as saying.

The impact of the pandemic on merchandise trade varied depending on region in 2020, with Asia seeing exports increase by 0.3 percent and imports decrease by only 1.3 percent, compared to the rest of the world with large declines on both fronts.

Last October, the WTO estimated a steeper 9.2 percent decline in the volume of world merchandise trade for 2020, followed by a slightly less optimistic 7.2 percent rise for 2021.

Global trade has proven to be relatively resilient compared to gross domestic product growth in many countries, with world GDP expected to increase 5.1 percent in 2021 and 3.8 percent in 2022 after a contraction of 3.8 percent last year.

Ideas:

Markets have been opening steadily and GPD has been steady, but it the variant become more severe, such as in Australia and South Africa it could slow down economic growth in some parts of the world.

As Japan and South Korea become more vaccinated and as both countries begin to open up more with less restrictions on their citizens, economic growth should improve in both countries.

But if the new virus variant expands in Japan and Tokyo just before the Olympics the Japanese Prime Minister might just have to implement emergency measures again just as Australia has done recently

Have a nice day and be safe!