WTO: Trump’s tariffs would have disastrous consequences

The World Trade Organization’s director-general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Thursday that any trade wars in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats would be disastrous for global growth, and urged countries not to retaliate.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, begins her second term as the WTO chief this year at a time when Trump’s tariff threats have raised the specter of trade wars.

“If there is a retaliation, whether it’s 25 percent or 60 percent, and we go back to where we were in the 1930s, we will see losses in global GDP of more than 10 percent. That is catastrophic. Everyone will pay the price,” Okonjo-Iweala told the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.