Donald Trump’s tariffs will make global trade shrink, says WTO

The World Trade Organisation has forecast that global trade will fall by 0.2% this year because of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“The decline is expected to be particularly steep in North America, where exports are forecasted to drop by 12.6%,” the WTO said.

It added that “severe downside risks”, including reciprocal tariffs and political uncertainty, and could lead to a sharper decline of 1.5% in global goods trade.

Ngozi Ikonjo Iweala, the WTO director general , called the “decoupling” of the US and China “a phenomenon that is really worrying to me”.