As worldwide plastic production reached 436 million metric tons in 2023 and increased global growth across industries, a Global Trade Update warned that this came at a cost to environmental and planetary health. Plastic pollution is threatening food systems and human health with limited capacity for waste management especially on small islands and developing countries.
The report titled, “Global Trade Update (August 2025): Mobilizing trade to curb plastic pollution,” confirmed that while trade in plastic surpassed $1.1 trillion, 75 percent of the plastic produced becomes waste and ends up in the world’s oceans and ecosystems.
“Today, plastic pollution represents a systemic and transboundary crisis, disproportionately affecting developing countries that have limited capacity for waste management,” the report said. “This growing imbalance threatens public health, food systems, ecosystems, and long-term development, especially in small island and coastal nations.”
While the average Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariffs on plastic and rubber products make them cheap, the decrease from 34 to 7.2 percent over the past three decades has discouraged “investment in alternative products” and hindered “innovation in developing countries that aim to export safer and more sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics,” the UN reported. Natural alternatives like paper, bamboo, natural fibers, and seaweed currently face average MFN tariffs of 14.4 percent.
With no comprehensive international treaty governing plastic’s composition, design, production, trade, and disposal, the upcoming Global Plastics Treaty is being considered “a critical opportunity to integrate trade, finance, and digital systems into a cohesive global response” by environmentalists.
The Global Plastic Treaty would include:
- Tariff and NTM reforms to support sustainable substitutes
- Investment in waste management and circular infrastructure
- Digital tools for traceability and customs compliance
- Policy coherence across the WTO, UNFCCC, Basel Convention, and regional frameworks.
“Trade must be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” the report said.
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