News Investigators/ The Director-General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says in spite of certain policy uncertainties, 72 per cent of world trade still goes on under the Organisation. According to Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, in modern terms, world merchandise trade grew by 4.6 per cent as surging demand for AI-related goods offset weaknesses linked to tariff increases trade policy uncertainty. “Most countries continue to trade on rules-based WTO terms. Around 72 per cent of global goods trade continues to flow on core WTO-most-favoured-nationtariffs,” she said. She said that global goods trade volumes in 2025 were over 12 per cent higher than in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, while services trade volumes were 31 per cent higher.