The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) warned that the growing volatility of trade policies is weakening the openness of major developed markets and creating uncertainty for international trade and investment.
This is what the Open Market Index 2026 (Open Market Index), released this Tuesday (16.06.2026), which evaluates the degree of openness of the G7 economies —Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom— using a renewed methodology that incorporates variables linked to digital trade, trade facilitation, foreign investment and regulatory stability.
“The ICC Open Market Index 2026 shows a fundamental strain on the global trading system. G7 economies remain open in theory, but this openness is increasingly undermined by rising policy volatility and uneven implementation in practice,” the report states.
According to the ICC, this situation is widening the gap between the formal opening of markets and the actual conditions that companies face when trading and investing.
"The result is a widening gap between declared openness and actual trading conditions, with direct implications for business confidence and cross-border investment," he adds.
The 2026 edition of the index is built on five main components: observed trade openness, trade policy regime, openness to foreign direct investment (FDI), trade in digital services, and trade policy volatility and deviation.
According to the ICC, these indicators reflect that economic openness can no longer be assessed solely based on tariffs or trade volume.
"These indicators reveal that openness is no longer a one-dimensional issue, but a multidimensional reality shaped by both policy and practice," the study highlights.
Canada, the most balanced
Among the main findings, the report concludes that "G7 economies are open overall, but openness varies markedly between countries and components: Canada shows the most balanced profile, while the United States presents the greatest divergence between components."
The study also notes important differences in terms of effective trade openness, associated with the size of economies, their integration into world trade, and internal measures that affect the value of imports.
Regarding foreign direct investment, the organization concludes that levels of openness are relatively similar within the G7 and that differences are mainly due to investment flows and stocks rather than formal regulatory restrictions.
On the other hand, the trade in digital services appears as the dimension with the highest levels of openness within the group.
The challenge of predictability
One of the most important aspects of the report is the growing importance of regulatory stability.
"Trade policy volatility is the most divergent component and a major drag on trade and investment," warns the ICC.
The organization believes that the uncertainty generated by frequent changes in trade rules has become one of the main obstacles to international economic activity and to integration into global value chains.
Trade facilitation and WTO reform.
The report also identifies a number of priorities for governments seeking to preserve open markets and strengthen economic growth.
Among these, the ICC highlights the need to reduce the volatility of trade policies, deepen the liberalization of trade in services, and offer more predictable frameworks for foreign investment.
It also underlines the importance of preserving the openness of digital trade, advancing trade facilitation and strengthening legal certainty through a reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In particular, the organization considers it urgent to restore a fully operational dispute settlement mechanism, update multilateral disciplines to cover instruments increasingly used by governments—such as subsidies, digital restrictions and national security measures—and advance multilateral frameworks to facilitate digital trade and investment.
The ICC also warns that the share of world merchandise trade conducted under the Most Favored Nation (MFN) principle has fallen to 72%, a sign of erosion of the multilateral system that, far from diminishing the relevance of the WTO, reinforces the need to move forward with its reform.
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