Changyong Rhee, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department warned that if, contrary to market expectations, there is no US-China trade agreement reached, “the market can react quite negatively because they already factor in some agreement will be reached.”
He also noted that “our general view is that trade tension has had a negative impact on Asia”. But that’s “mostly still through the financial market … rather than trade flows directly.” However, “as trade tensions escalate more, we are starting to see the trade flows affected.”
And, he urged that “the agreement also should be consistent with multilateralism rather than bilateralism between the United States and China.”
