The World Trade Organization (WTO) has sharply reduced its forecasts for global trade because of President Trump’s global tariffs.
Instead of predicting a 3% growth in volume, it now expects a 1% contraction.
The drastic scale of this reduction underlines that these US tariffs pose the biggest challenge to the global trading system since the WTO began drawing up and enforcing the rules 30 years ago.
The director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says the tariffs “will have substantial implications for global trade and economic growth prospects”.
She adds that she is deeply concerned about escalation and retaliatory measures – which have already started – making things even worse. Some of Trump’s tariffs are already being challenged at the WTO.
But the Geneva-based body risks being sidelined if it can’t find a way to help its members, including the US, to settle their differences.
