Doha: The United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned that escalating tensions and disruptions to maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz threaten not only global energy supplies but also risk forcibly excluding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from competitive value chains.

According to Qatar News Agency, in a report published Tuesday, the agency said small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 90 percent of businesses globally, provide 70 percent of jobs, and contribute 50 percent of global gross domestic product. Their exposure to logistical shocks therefore poses a risk to the resilience of economic growth as a whole.

Tracking data from January through August 2026 showed a sharp decline in vessel traffic through the strait. Daily traffic fell from between 120 and 140 vessels in January and February to levels close to zero in March, before becoming volatile and temporarily peaking at 80 vessels in July.

The report highlighted stark differences in shipping and customs-compliance costs between large companies and smaller firms. In developing countries, the cost of complying with import requirements-including customs duties and payments to freight forwarders and intermediaries-amounted to 19.4 percent of the total value of products imported directly by small firms and 17.5 percent for medium-sized firms, compared with about 14.7 percent for large companies.

Small firms in developing economies bear more than twice the import costs of their counterparts in developed economies, where the costs range from 7.6 percent for large companies to 8.3 percent for small firms, the report said.

Against this backdrop, UNCTAD called on policymakers to adopt a comprehensive package of measures, including better monitoring of small firms' participation in trade rather than relying solely on aggregate trade flows; safeguarding liquidity and access to trade finance to prevent payment cycles from becoming prolonged; supporting logistics services; facilitating affordable trade transactions; and strengthening the ability of small businesses to diversify their supplier and customer bases.