WTO chief sees lasting impact on trade from Middle East war and geopolitics

INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY

BANGKOK: Shifting geopolitics and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East ​will have a lasting impact on world trade flows as companies hedge their bets against future shocks, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, told Reuters on Thursday. Trade had contracted sharply in the Middle East as a result of the Iran war, despite a series of workarounds, and would take some time to bounce back, Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview, adding that some of the shifts could bec