World Trade Organisation chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged nations Thursday to keep calm over tariffs, warning that a tit-for-tat trade war would be “catastrophic” for the world economy.
Okonjo-Iweala issued her appeal during a panel discussion on tariffs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in a week that saw US President Donald Trump threaten tariffs against China, the European Union, Mexico and Canada.
The WTO director-general urged cooler heads to prevail, quipping: “Please let’s not hyperventilate. I know we are here to discuss tariffs. I’ve been saying to everybody: could we chill, also. I just sense a lot of hyperventilation.”
She recalled the fallout from the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in the United States during the Great Depression in 1930, which prompted retaliation and worsened the global economic crisis at the time.