Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – On the morning of March 31, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) held its monthly press conference, releasing the global trade friction index for 2025 and January 2026. Data shows that the global trade friction index remained high every month in 2025.
From the composite index perspective, the global trade friction index remained high for all 12 months of 2025, indicating an increasingly severe global trade friction situation. Among them, the US trade friction index further climbed from its high level in 2024, with the monthly average value in 2025 increasing by 16 points year-on-year.
Wang Guannan, spokesperson for the CCPIT, introduced that from the country-specific index perspective, among the 20 countries (regions) monitored, the US, India, the EU, Brazil, and Japan ranked in the top five in terms of the number of months with high trade friction indices in 2025. In particular, the US trade friction measures involved the largest amount of money, ranking first in 11 months of the year, with the average amount of its trade friction measures being nearly four times that of the second-ranked country. In January of this year, the United States continued to top the list, with India and Russia ranking second and third, respectively.
From an industry perspective, in 2025, the electronics, machinery and equipment, and transportation equipment sectors are the main areas triggering trade frictions. In January of this year, the electronics industry continued to lead in trade friction index; related enterprises in these sectors should establish a regular early warning and response mechanism.
From a sub-index perspective, in 2025, among the five categories of measures monitored, other restrictive measures, technical trade measures, and import/export tariff measures ranked in the top three in terms of quantity. In January of this year, the 20 countries (regions) within the monitoring scope issued 23 import/export tariff measures, initiated 19 trade remedy investigations, submitted 141 notifications of technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) to the WTO, issued 15 import/export restrictive measures, and issued 178 other restrictive measures. Among these, the import/export tariff measures index ranked first.
