IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said yesterday that “the clouds on the horizon that we have signaled about six months ago are getting darker by the day, and I was going to say by the weekend”, referring to what Trump did to the G7. She added that the biggest and darkest cloud that we see is the deterioration in confidence that is prompted by (an) attempt to challenge the way in which trade has been conducted, in which relationships have been handled and in which multilateral organizations have been operating.”
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo also criticized the that “the US has been focusing much more on bilateral — unilateral even sometimes — measures, which is not something that is support of the rules-based trading system.” And, “they have been complaining about the system, they say that they want to improve the system, but we would expect a more constructive approach on their part.”
