Trade and globalization have brought greater prosperity to hundreds of millions and greater stability among nations, according to a report published by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday.

Trade has allowed nations to benefit from specialization and economies of scale to produce more efficiently, said the WTO's annual World Trade Report, entitled "Trade in a Globalizing World. "

Trade has also raised productivity, supported the spread of knowledge and new technologies, and enriched the range of choices available to consumers, the report said.

But the study also warned that deeper integration into the world economy has not always proved popular, nor have the benefits of trade and globalization necessarily reached all sections of society.

As a consequence, trade skepticism is on the rise in certain quarters, it said.

"The challenges facing governments in managing globalization are formidable, and success in spreading prosperity more widely requires a strong common purpose," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy wrote in the report's introduction.

The report pointed out that trade liberalization has not led to a matching reduction in inequality partly because of technological change, pre-existing levels of trade protection and the state of basic infrastructure, among other factors.

"We ask why some countries have managed to take advantage of falling trade costs and greater policy-driven trading opportunities while others have remained largely outside international commercial relations," Lamy said in a statement from Geneva.

The report emphasized that international cooperation - including through the so-called Doha Round of trade liberalization talks - can contribute to ensuring that gains from trade are equally distributed.