Examining the impacts of Covid-19 on the international trade: Network approach

The COVID-19 pandemic produced an enormous impact on human society with multiple health, social and economic effects. The impact on international trade has been enormous. Thus, the World Trade Organization (WTO) states that “the COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented disruption to the global economy and world trade, as production and consumption are scaled back across the globe”. Thus, the spreading of the general pandemic COVID-19 has caused significant changes in the volume and structure of trade between countries. This essay examines the trade ties between Iran and other countries in the world trade network before and after the outbreak of the Covid-19. To this end, using the data provided by 149 countries during 2018 and 2020 and also drawing on Network Analysis Method and Leiden’s Community Detection Algorithms, and then utilizing the indicators of centrality and density, the county's position in the Asian-African trade complex was put to examination. By comparing the structure of the trade network during the 2018 and 2020, the results show that with the outbreak of the Covid-19, the structure of trade relations and the position of most of the countries, especially Iran, has been severely affected, to an extent that the indicators of centrality of strength, closeness, the Eigen vector and density indicator have decreased in 2020 compared to 2018, which demonstrates the downfall in the share of trade and the decline in the importance and position of countries, especially Iran.