All will lose: UN chief warns of Global trade war consequences
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United Nations: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has issued a warning that "all will lose" when countries engage in trade wars, particularly in the context of the tariff wars initiated by the Trump administration.
"I think we live in a global economy. Everything is interlinked. And obviously, one of the great advantages of having a situation of free trade is to create the conditions for all countries to benefit. When we enter into a trade war, I believe all will lose," Guterres said here on Wednesday.
He was responding to a question on the growing global trade war. US President Donald Trump, in his second term in the White House, has said America will impose reciprocal tariffs on nations that charge high levies on US goods.
The Trump administration's tariffs on steel and aluminium sparked a global trade dispute, prompting the European Union and Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs on US products. The administration's tariffs, which targeted imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, were met with countermeasures from these countries, escalating tensions in global trade.
Trump has said America is "going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs," and "we are going to become so rich, you are not going to know where to spend all that money. I am telling you, you just watch. We are going to have jobs. We are going to have open factories. It is going to be great."
US President Donald Trump has been vocal about India's high tariffs on American products, labelling them "very unfair." He announced that the US will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that charge high duties on American goods, starting next month. Trump believes the US has been "ripped off" for decades by nearly every country and is determined to change this.
"If you do not make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and, in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it is our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Canada... and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them," Trump has said.
Trump mentioned that India charges the US auto tariffs exceeding 100%, while China's average tariff on US products is twice that of what the US charges China. He also stated that South Korea's average tariff is four times higher.
(inputs from PTI)