by Ben Aylor, Managing Director & Senior Partner, Washington, DC; Megan DeFauw, Managing Director & Partner, Dallas; Marc Gilbert, Managing Director & Senior Partner, Montreal; Claudio Knizek, Managing Director & Partner, Washington, DC; Nikolaus Lang, Managing Director & Senior Partner, and Global Leader, Global Advantage practice; Iacob Koch-Weser, Knowledge Expert, Boston; and Michael McAdoo, Partner & Director, Montreal; the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered perhaps the greatest shocks to international trade since the Great Depression.

Global trade in 2020 is projected to decline by 20% according to our baseline scenario for economic recovery, and it is not projected to regain its 2019 absolute level of $18 trillion until 2023.

Only the most optimistic economic scenarios see trade returning to its previous level in 2021.

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