Global trade is not broken, despite the disruption, pressure and shock of trade tariffs introduced by the U.S. this year, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) told CNBC Tuesday.
“Many people have the impression that, because of the unilateral actions of the U.S., that global trade is broken. Yes [they’ve] been a great disruption — the greatest disruption of global trade in 80 years — but we are pleased to see the resilience of the system,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.
“The system is battered, it’s bruised, but it’s still standing,” she told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia.
Okonjo-Iweala’s comments come as U.S. President Donald Trump, the architect of multiple U.S. tariffs on foreign imports to the States, continues a tour of Asia in which he has signed trade deals and truces, so far.
But the big prize for Trump will be whether he and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who are due to meet Thursday, can come to a deal to reduce duties and counter-tariffs on a range of each other’s goods. Trump said Monday that Washington and Beijing were poised to “come away with” a trade deal, raising market hopes.
