Financial Times FT.com

As world trade plunges, governments are looking for an explanation. Is it a fall in demand, a shortage of trade finance or protectionism? On the answer hangs the response they need to stop globalisation going into reverse.

Tokyo dockside: a shortage of trade credit is a factor in the surprisingly speedy collapse in global trade

International trade has long been more volatile than overall economic growth, partly because it is largely made up of manufactured goods that are subject to big swings in inventories and because imported consumer goods are often the first to be cut in a downturn.