World Bank agrees with Trump's trade complaints, urges countries to lower tariffs on US
The World Bank on Tuesday agreed with President Trump's complaint that foreign countries engage in unfair trade practices with the US and urged the nations to ease their tariffs on American exports.
Top economists at the international institution, which helps finance low and middle-income countries, acknowledged that many nations do not provide reciprocal trade access to the US.
'This [situation] could not be sustained indefinitely,' the World Bank's chief economist, Indermit Gill, said during a news briefing, the Washington Post reported.
3 President Trump has long groused that US trading partners engage in unfair practices.
REUTERS
Gill said the World Bank has had to sharply lower its global growth forecasts because of Trump's blizzard of tariffs to try to help right the situation and amid the ongoing uncertainty over global trade.
But he contended that Trump's actions were merely a response to uneven trade access between other countries and the US.
Other experts at the World Bank concurred with that assessment and indicated that Europe, Japan and China should all take steps to reduce trade barriers on the US, while calling for an across-the-board rollback on tariffs on all sides.
3 World Bank's chief economist, Indermit Gill, acknowledged Tuesday that several top US trade partners have had uneven trade practices.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
The World Bank's updated economic forecast downgraded growth expectations for the US in 2025 from its 2.3% projection in January down to 1.4%.
If that prediction comes true, it will be the lowest annual growth rate in US gross domestic product since the Great Recession, not counting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The institution's forecast for China meanwhile remained steady at 4.5%, while it said global growth will slow down 0.4 percentage points to 2.3%. But there's a risk of further decline, and global growth could plunge to 1.8% if trade issues persist, the World Bank warned.
3 Trump has been particularly keen on overhauling trade relations with China's president, Xi Jinping.
POOL/AFP via Getty Images
'After a succession of adverse shocks in recent years, the global economy is facing another substantial headwind, with increased trade tension and heightened policy uncertainty,' the international financial institution wrote in its new forecast.
'Against the backdrop of a deteriorating global environment, growth forecasts for 2025 have been downgraded.'
Trump has imposed a 10% baseline tariff rate on virtually every country, 30% duties on imports from China and Hong Kong. 30% duties on imports from China and Hong Kong, a 25% rate on imports from Canada and Mexico that aren't subject to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and 25% on foreign steel and aluminum.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that if all those tariffs implemented by May 13 were left in place, it would generate about $2.8 trillion in revenue over a 10-year period.
Trump has also given countries a deadline of July 8 to cut lightning trade arrangements or else face an onslaught of his customized 'Liberation Day' tariffs.
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