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Multilateral trade
ICC Open Market Index 2026
The ICC Open Market Index (OMI) measures how open economies are to international trade and investment across a range of policy and performance indicators. The 2026 edition reflects the evolving global trade landscape, including the growing importance of services and digital trade, the expanded use of non-tariff measures, and the increasing impact of policy volatility on cross-border commerce. This edition applies the Index to the G7 economies, which together account for roughly one-third of global trade.
The ICC Open Market Index 2026 reveals a fundamental tension in the global trading system. The G7 economies – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – remain broadly open on paper, but this openness is increasingly undermined by rising policy volatility and uneven implementation in practice. The result is a widening gap between stated openness and actual trade conditions, with direct implications for business confidence and cross-border investment.
The 2026 ICC Open Market Index is built around five core components:
- Observed trade openness
- Trade policy regime
- Openness to foreign direct investment
- Digitally delivered services trade
- Trade policy volatility and drift
Key findings:
- G7 economies are open in aggregate, but openness varies sharply across countries and components – Canada shows the most balanced profile, while the United States exhibits the widest divergence across components;
- Observed trade openness varies, reflecting differences in economic size, integration into global trade and domestic measures affecting import value;
- Trade policy regimes are relatively similar overall, but outcomes differ based on the application of tariffs and non-tariff measures;
- Foreign direct investment (FDI) openness is broadly similar across the G7, with differences driven mainly by flows and stocks rather than formal restrictions;
- Digitally delivered services trade shows the highest levels of openness across the G7;
- Trade policy volatility is the most divergent component and a key drag on trade and investment.
These scores reveal that openness is no longer a single-axis question, but a multi-dimensional reality shaped by both policy and practice.
The report also highlights priority actions for governments seeking to sustain and strengthen open markets. Chief among these is reducing trade policy volatility – including that caused by behind-the-border instruments, alongside deeper services liberalisation and more predictable frameworks for FDI. It also underscores the need to preserve openness in digital trade, improve trade facilitation, and restore legal certainty through World Trade Organization (WTO) reform, including a permanent solution on the e-commerce moratorium.
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ICC OPEN MARKETS INDEX 2017
The fewer the barriers to the cross-border flow of goods, services, capital and labour, the greater the openness of an economy. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) publishes the Open Markets Index (OMI) with the aim of presenting a balanced and reliable measurement of an economy’s openness to trade. ICC hopes that the OMI may serve as a guide for governments in implementing reforms to enable trade as a driver of sustainable growth and job creation.
