Trade faces threats from political weaponisation, the director general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade has said.

Speaking at MemberCon25 in Leeds today (13 March), Marco Forgione MCIEx said it was not “hyperbole” to say that there were few times in history when those working in trade had ever faced “such uncertainty or instability” – and that events bringing together members of the trade community are therefore more important than ever.

‘Reshaping the global economy’

The second Donald Trump administration in the US is “forcefully and energetically implementing a very deliberate strategy” to restructure the “traditional multilateral administrative system” underpinning global trade, he added.

Trade tariffs are tool now being used “for more than just trade purposes”, Forgione said. They are now a “political weapon being used by the administration” in a bid to “fundamentally reshape the global economy”. It is time for an acknowledgement of “the reality of the signal that is being given by Washington”.

These changes also mean that “it is more important today than ever” that those in the trade community “come together”.

“The community of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade seek to fulfil the foundational mission that was established in 1935, when our founders came together to deal with the economic and society problems of the inter-war years.”

The way ahead

The director general looked ahead to the future of trade and focused not only on the potential for trade relationships with other nations but also on the importance of expanding international trade networks domestically to encourage more women and minorities to enter the sector.

Digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) will also be crucial to the future of trade, Forgione added, noting the potential for AI to digest complex customs information. He also spoke about the Chartered Institute’s new app for ensuring supply chain visibility and compliance, Dokit, and its value in helping traders to streamline those processes.

‘Local to global’

All these technologies and resources “help us take trade from being local to global”, Forgione said.

“That’s the whole point of today, supporting you to take your business to new markets all over the world and expand horizons. Helping you to take down your trade barriers and feeding back to policymakers on where the pain points are.”

Facing today’s challenges means setting the world “on a new trajectory” on trade. The only way to achieve this, Forgione said, is using events like MemberCon to spread the benefits of international trade “to every entrepreneur, every business, every community, every region and every nation”.