COVID-19 trade policy database: food and medical products

Many governments are using trade policy measures to increase the availability of personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and food products during the COIVD-19 pandemic. Such measures may take many forms and be carried out by different government agencies. Tracking them is important for assessing their incidence, effectiveness, and potential international spillover effects—particularly on countries that depend on imports of these critical products.

The data on this page are the work of a partnership between the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies’ Global Governance Programme at the European University Institute, the University of St. Gallen’s Global Trade Alert initiative, and the Trade and Regional Integration unit of the World Bank Group. The project collects information on trade policy changes affecting medical and food products since the beginning of 2020. It aims to document the cumulative resort to trade policies and changes across countries over time.

Information is derived from official sources, media reports, and other public sources and is updated on a weekly basis. All the data collected since 2020 can be found on the World Bank’s website.

Recent publications

Bernard Hoekman, Filippo Santi, Anirudh Shingal, ‘Country characteristics and trade policy during the COVID-19 pandemic’, Article published on Review of International Economics, 2024

Simon Evenett, Bernard Hoekman, Nadia Rocha, Michele Ruta, ‘The Covid-19 vaccine production club: will value chains temper nationalism?’, EUI Working Paper 2021

Simon Evenett, Matteo Fiorini, Johannes Fritz, Bernard Hoekman, Piotr Lukaszuk, Nadia Rocha, Filippo Santi, Anirudh Shingal, ‘Trade policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: evidence from a new dataset’, EUI Working Paper 2020

Bernard Hoekman, Anirudh Shingal, Varun Eknath, Viktoriya Ereshchenko, ‘COVID-19, public procurement regimes and trade policy’, EUI Working Paper 2020

Watch a recording from a webinar presenting the project’s findings and discussing international cooperation held on 5 June 2020 and chaired by Prof. Bernard Hoekman.