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Employees drive trucks to transport containers which are unloaded from a cargo ship at Qingdao port during a rainy day in Qingdao, Shandong province April 10, 2012.CHINA DAILY/Reuters

World trade growth will slow for a second year to 3.7 per cent in 2012 but "severe" downside risks could drive it further below the 20-year average of 5.4 per cent, the World Trade Organization forecast on Thursday.

Trade growth slowed to 5.0 per cent in 2011 from 13.8 per cent in 2010, and is provisionally expected to rebound to 5.6 per cent in 2013. The figure for 2011 was worse than a provisional forecast of 5.8 per cent issued in September.

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