Introduction
The continuing financial and economic crisis, primarily in the US and Europe, has had a direct dampening impact on global trade flows with a concomitant impact on jobs and incomes as national fiscal policies have swung towards austerity measures in an attempt to reduce sovereign debt. The result of austerity, however, has been at a time of slow growth and is causing further reductions in growth and a drop in international trade as consumer and industrial demand evaporates.
All countries were impacted by the 2008 to 2009 recession through falling exports, rising unemployment and thus falling incomes. The global recession created an unprecedented decline in trade growth in 2009, affecting the capacity of trade to be an effective engine of growth.
