Eighteen major shipping countries say the rules that keep global trade moving are breaking down, and that is bad news for anyone who buys imported goods.

• More than 80% of world trade travels by sea, and the countries behind the warning say repeated disruptions are no longer one-off events but a permanent shift.
• The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, drought in the Panama Canal, and the US-Iran conflict have each cut shipping lanes and made supply chains fragile.
• Shipping routes are now being used as weapons: after US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz and the whole world paid for it.
• Trump's trade war and China's military buildup in the South China Sea are pulling the system apart, even though neither was named directly.
• As countries write their own separate rules instead of shared ones, markets split apart and costs rise for companies and shoppers.

Outlook: Expect more chokepoint scares and higher shipping costs unless countries agree on common rules, which looks unlikely near term.