The publication presents the results of the 2022 joint OECD—WTO Aid for Trade monitoring and evaluation exercise. The authors analyze the latest trends in trade and the factors that have a direct effect on trade flows and global economy.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has prepared analytical research on business support mechanisms to avoid insolvency during the COVID-19 crisis. The slowdown of economic activity caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and related emergency measures implemented to tackle the health crisis have led to severe difficulties for companies to meet their financial obligations. Many of the fixed costs, such as rents and interest payments, remain due while the cash flow destined to meet these obligations has vanished. As a result, many otherwise sound companies are facing acute liquidity constraints that eventually might become solvency problems.

The collapse in the price of crude oil is putting immediate and severe financial pressure on producers that are heavily dependent on revenues from exports. None of the OPEC states balanced their budgets at below $50/barrel in 2019, with a number requiring more than twice that amount.

The publication by WTO studies global value chains (GVCs), the trends affecting them, and linkages between GVCs and technologies and labor markets in developed and developing economies.