Is your business ready for international growth? To sell to the world, Canadian businesses need to understand the world—specifically, which global markets offer the strongest opportunities for expansion.
That’s why the all-new DHL Trade Atlas 2025 is an invaluable resource, offering data-driven insights into global trade trends, emerging markets, and where future growth is headed.
Produced in partnership with the New York University Stern School of Business, the Atlas analyzes a wealth of global data to map the evolving landscape of international trade.
To help businesses pinpoint new opportunities, the DHL Trade Atlas 2025 delivers data-backed insights across nearly 200 countries and territories—offering a comprehensive view of global trade flows and emerging markets.
This edition arrives at a pivotal moment, with international trade tensions dominating headlines. Yet, the Atlas highlights encouraging signals for businesses looking to expand globally.
Global trade is forecast to grow at a modestly faster pace over the next five years than during the previous decade. While President Trump’s proposed tariff increases may impact trade dynamics, they are not expected to reverse overall global trade growth. Even if all proposed U.S. tariffs are implemented and met with retaliation, global trade is still projected to expand—albeit at a slower pace.
Several long-term trends remain consistent: trade flows continue to span greater distances, and major economies such as China, the U.S., and India are expected to retain their leading positions in trade growth. At the same time, new high-growth markets are emerging, with Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines ranking among the top countries for speed and scale of growth over the next five years.
The resilience of global trade in an increasingly complex business environment is clear. The insights in this report suggest that decision-makers should be prepared to capture new opportunities while managing evolving risks.
With detailed maps, charts, and data visualizations, the DHL Trade Atlas 2025 serves as a powerful resource—helping businesses refine their international growth strategies and focus on the most promising global markets.
Plan your cross-border growth strategy with the DHL Trade Atlas 2025.
If you’re looking to—or already do—ship internationally, this report is essential reading. Brought to you by the world’s most international company, it reflects DHL’s position at the centre of global trade and its commitment to helping customers identify the most promising markets for international growth and expansion.
Download the report nowDHL Trade Atlas 2025: 10 Key Takeaways
1. Faster forecast growth, greater uncertainty
Global trade is forecast to grow at a modestly faster pace over the next five years compared to the previous decade. However, record-high uncertainty around future trade policies continues to cloud the global outlook.
2. Trump tariff impact
Even if all tariff increases proposed by the Trump administration are implemented and countries retaliate in turn, global trade is forecast to continue growing – but at a much slower pace.
3. Made-in-China content finding new routes to U.S.
The share of U.S. imports sourced directly from China continues to decline, but overall reliance on China-made content remains largely unchanged. Imports from other countries increasingly include Chinese inputs, and direct U.S. imports from China may also be underreported.
4. Global geopolitical shifts limited
Geopolitically driven shifts in global trade patterns remain limited and appear to have stalled in 2024. While trade between blocs of close allies declined relative to trade within these blocs in 2022 and 2023, there were no further declines over the first nine months of 2024.
5. Recent growth leaders
Three countries ranked among the top 30 worldwide on both the speed (growth rate) and the scale (absolute amount) of their goods trade volume growth over the past five years: the United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam, and Ireland.
6. Forecast future growth leaders
During the next five years, India, Viet Nam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are forecast to rank among the top 30 for both speed and scale of trade growth. India also stands out as the country with the third largest absolute amount of forecast trade growth (6% of additional global trade), behind only China (12%) and the United States (10%).
7. Standout regions
South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia are forecast to achieve much faster trade volume growth than all other regions from 2024 to 2029. However, slower-growing Europe is forecast to generate a larger share (30%) of the world’s total trade growth. High income economies are forecast to generate 58% of trade growth, while low- and middle-income economies generate 42%.
8. Long distance trade going strong
Contrary to predictions that recent disruptions would drive more regionalized trade, global trade occurred over the longest average distance on record during the first nine months of 2024 (5,000 km). Meanwhile, the share of trade taking place within major geographic regions declined to a new low of 51%.
9. Trade leaders by sector
Most trade is in manufactured goods, but price increases have boosted the value of trade in mineral fuels. From 2017 to 2022, the categories with the largest increases in the value of goods traded were mineral fuels, electrical machinery and equipment, industrial machinery, and pharmaceuticals.
10. Large headroom for trade growth
Even after decades of increases in the integration of the world economy via trade, only 21% of the value of all goods and services produced around the world ultimately ends up in a different country from where it was produced. There is still very large potential for future trade growth.
Plan your cross-border growth strategy with the DHL Trade Atlas 2025.
If you’re looking to – or already do – ship internationally, this report is essential reading. Brought to you by the world’s most international company, it reflects DHL's position at the heart of global trade and their commitment to help customers identify the most prosperous markets for expansion.
Download the report now
Share
