WTO: US duties could reduce global trade by 1% in 2025
US import tariffs could reduce the overall volume of world trade by about 1 percent this year – as noted by Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, TASS reports
“Our initial estimates suggest that these measures, as well as those introduced since the beginning of the year, could lead to an overall decline in global merchandise trade this year of around 1 percent,” the organisation said in a statement released by its press office.
The WTO Director General also expressed concern about the risk of an escalating tariff war with retaliatory measures that would further reduce world trade, “I am deeply concerned <...> about the possibility of an escalating tariff war with a cycle of retaliatory measures that would further reduce trade. The WTO was created to help at just such times <...>. I encourage Members to use this forum to engage constructively and find joint solutions.”
Okonjo-Iweala, however, noted that the majority of world trade, despite the new measures, still takes place under the WTO’s most-favoured-nation regime.
“We estimate that this share now stands at 74 percent, compared to about 80 percent at the beginning of the year,” the WTO Chief said, calling on the organisation’s member states to ‘rally together to maintain these gains’.
