ISLAMABAD: Global standards have increasingly been used as tools in trade disputes since the turn of the century, reshaping trade flows and often favouring wealthy countries and large multinational companies over developing economies, according to a World Bank report.

“A proliferating set of international standards, covering everything from food labelling to specifications of 5G cellular networks, is steadily reshaping the global economic order, delivering hefty benefits to wealthy nations and large multinational companies that set them, while leaving many developing countries on the sidelines,” the bank’s World Development Report 2025 says.

The report says developing countries are not sufficiently represented when standards are........

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