On Monday morning, Beijing time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Monday that global trade will drop sharply by 9% this year, with the largest decline since World War II.

"In the first few months of this year, most of the industrial world experienced economic contraction, and exports of most major economies declined sharply, especially in Asia's major economies, which forced us to make a gloomy forecast for the 2009 World Trade anomaly," WTO said in its annual World Trade assessment report released today.

In the worst economic recession in 60 years, manufacturers in the US, Europe and Asia are facing a difficult situation.

From Europe's largest automobile company Volkswagen to Thyssen Krupp, Germany's largest steelmaker, and Goodyear, the world's second largest consumer electronics producer, and SONY, the world's manufacturers are taking measures to reduce production and reduce staff to meet the demand downturn.

WTO reported: "the economic downturn in the developed countries will be particularly serious. It is expected that this year's export trade will decline by 10%. For developing countries, the total export volume in 2009 will decline by 2% to 3% because of the fact that its economic growth is far less dependent on trade than developed countries."

According to data released today, in 2008, the impact of the financial crisis on the euro zone's main counterparties was frustrated, and the region's exports to the United States fell sharply, the highest level in five years.

Shipments of exports in the US fell sharply in January to its lowest level since 2006. The rate has dropped by 44% in recent six months and 51% in imports, due to the reluctance of US consumers to purchase crude oil from OPEC to Japanese cars.

On the eve of the upcoming summit of the group of 20, Pascale Lamy and Pascal Lamy, WTO director general, reiterated the previous call for global policymakers to refrain from adopting protectionist measures in the form of Pascal Lamy.

He pointed out that such measures will deepen the current economic downturn.

"Restricting imports will only lead to counterparties' tactics and ultimately damage their export trade," Lamy said in a statement released today.

Editor in chief: Xu Qiyun