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The trade monitoring report from the World Trade Organization published on 2016 stated that, from October 2015 to May 2016, the G-20 countries have imposed 145 new trade barriers, jeopardizing international free trade.
By analyzing the restricting measures applied by G-20 since 2008, the numbers are even more impressing. According to the WTO, G-20 applied 1,583 barriers to trade, meaning an impact on 4.6 % of world imports.
United States and India are the countries that have applied the greater number of barriers to trade over the years, situation which may increasingly generate trade tensions with partners. Trade restrictions imposed to China by the USA have already caused frictions between both countries, both politically and economically.
Surprisingly, especially when looking at a scenario of crescent approval of barriers, the same WTO report stated that the number of measures to facilitate trade have increased as well. This could potentially be a result of the new world trend of setting bilateral agreements as an alternative to successful tradeoffs.