WTO chief warns of economic danger of trade war

He welcomed the US-China truce reached in Buenos Aires, and the commitment to reach a deal to defuse the conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.

The alternative of escalating the trade conflict would undermine the global economic recovery, he said.

The “outcome in all simulations is that trade and economic growth will slow down and that all countries, without exceptions, will lose out in a global trade war,” Azevedo said.

That is a warning the International Monetary Fund also has issued.

Azevedo acknowledged the growing anxiety in a changing economy, but stressed that most of the job losses are due to technological change, rather than trade.

Trade is “an engine of growth, productivity, innovation, job creation,” he said.

The Trump administration has blocked the workings of the WTO dispute arbitration system.

Azevedo again flagged the dangers of that path, saying it could undermine the WTO. But he said that after the agreement by the G20, “I believe that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to renew the trading system.” 

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