WTO Concerned About Looming Global Trade War

(WASHINGTON, DC) Last week the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Azevêdo said members have “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to renew the trading system”. He argued that in responding to the range of challenges in the global trading system today, momentum was building towards strengthening and improving the work of the WTO. Azevêdo was speaking at the National Foreign Trade Council’s annual World Trade Dinner. He also held a series of meetings with US Trade Representative (USTR) Bob Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as well as representatives from Congress and the private sector. The economy is growing healthily for the first time since the financial crisis he explained but said trade restrictions could precipitate a slowing of the global economy. WTO studies highlight that the last six months have seen a dramatic spike in trade restrictions. Export orders are already down significantly as WTO economists have been assessing a variety of possible scenarios to develop this picture, including the impact of a full, global trade war. The numbers vary, depending on the parameters of each scenario. But one common outcome in all simulations is that trade and economic growth will slow down and that all countries, without exception, will lose if a global trade war breaks out.