Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director General of the World Trade Organization, WTO, issued a stern warning on Thursday, January 23, against any reciprocated trade wars prompted by the United States, US, and President Donald Trump’s tariff threats on different countries.
Urging other states to refrain from responding in kind to Trump, Okonjo-Iweala called such a potential situation “catastrophic.’’
Her comment came after Trump threatened trade wars against Russia over the battle in Ukraine.
Okonjo-Iweala speaking during the World Economic Forum annual meeting at the Swiss resort of Davos said: “If we have tit-for-tat retaliation, whether it’s 25% tariff (or) 60% and we go to where we were in the 1930s we’re going to see double-digit global GDP losses. That’s catastrophic. Everyone will pay.”
Referencing the two World Wars when countries adopted trade restrictions in response to a US tariff act in 1930.
“We’ve seen this movie, as I said, elsewhere in the 1930s with the Smoot-Hawley Act. It made it worse,” she said.
“We’re very much saying to our members at the WTO, you have other avenues, even if a tariff is levied, please keep calm.”
