World Trade Organization urged its members to revise the rules of global trade,

The World Trade Organization urged its members to revise the rules of global trade, otherwise there is a risk of sliding into fragmentation and a significant drop in economic output.

Based on the organization's annual report, existing rules have failed to keep pace with the shift in economic power, the growth of industrial policy, digital trade, and the intensification of political tensions among major powers.

Trade economists at the World Trade Organization modeled a scenario in which the world becomes fragmented into competing geopolitical blocs. In such a case, global gross domestic product would be 5.1% lower and exports 18.6% lower by 2050.

In a more severe scenario of collapse, with multilateralism giving way to a network of free-trade agreements, GDP falls by 6.9% and exports by nearly 27%.