Liberalized trade policy urged for world recovery

The volume of world trade fell by an estimated 2 percent last year and a joint international initiative to liberalize trade policy is needed to revive it , the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade said.

GATT, which supervises most world trade relations, said in its annual report that although an upturn began late last year, the average level of 1983 trade will do no more than match last year's level. While urging governments to resist domestic lobbies, GATT criticized governments for interfering too much in the running of economies, thus distorting the world's price system and aggravating the international debt crisis, protectionism, and the investment capital shortage.