IMF head says nobody wins a trade war

Source: Xinhua | 2018-03-08

THE head of the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday that a trade war US President Donald Trump apparently intends to provoke with tariffs on steel and aluminium would snuff out global growth.

“If international trade is called into question by these types of measures, it will be a transmission channel for a drop in growth, a drop in trade and it will be fearsome,” Christine Lagarde said on RTL radio.

“In a trade war that will be fed by reciprocal increases of customs tariffs, no one wins,” she added.

Trump boasted last week on Twitter that trade wars are “easy to win” after his initial announcement of 10 percent tariffs on imports of aluminium and a 25 percent levy on steel brought into the United States provoked a global outcry.