The impact to trade brought about by state bailout packages also remained to be seen, a WTO internal document obtained by AFP showed.
"Growth began to decline in the third quarter, and this became more accentuated as the year drew to a close. For the full year, the WTO Secretariat estimate is 4.0% real trade growth," said the report, which examined the impact of the economic crisis on trade.
Global trade grew by 8.5% in 2006 but slipped to 5.5% in 2007.
The WTO last April estimated that trade growth could ease to 4.5% in 2008 as a sharp economic slowdown in developed countries will only be partly offset by strong gains in emerging economies.
The fluctuations were most pronounced when trade was denominated in dollar terms.
Growth in dollar terms exceeded 20% in the first half of 2008, but slowed sharply in the second half "and turned negative in November."
Trade values were boosted by the rise in commodity prices in the first half, before dropping in the second half as oil prices plummeted. But the dollar moved inversely to both trends.
"Currency developments inflated trade growth in value terms in the first half of the year and accentuated the decline in the second half," said the report.
Meanwhile, despite the global slowdown, the report noted that "most WTO members appear to have successfully kept domestic protecionist pressures under control" for now.
Without mentioning any possible violations of trade rules, the WTO listed members such as Indonesia, Ecuador, India, China and the European Commission as having introduced new trade related measures.
It pointed to state industry-specific bailout packages including industry rescue makers, saying that the trade likely impact of these packages remained to be seen.
Such rescue packages could well lend unfair advantages to some institutions, noted the WTO.
"When analysing these bailout measures from the perspective of trade in financial services, it must be recognised that some of the measures at least... may eventually have negative spillover effects on other markets or introduce distortions to competition between financial institutions," the report said.
Fear of protectionism stalked this year's meeting of world leaders at Davos, with politicians and businesspeople stressing the danger that the next phase of the economic crisis could be government policies that crimp trade.
Anger at job cuts resulting from the financial crisis and the use of public money in bailouts could lead governments into policies that favour national companies and close markets to foreign products. (AFP)
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