At this week's fall meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the world bank in Washington, central bank presidents and finance ministers poured out bitter water and told the tragic stories of economies. Some also point out that U.S. policy has deviated from what it was when it co founded the IMF in the 1940s.
World Bank President David Malpass told participants at a meeting on Monday that "the world economy has been hit hard by high tariff barriers, depression and war for more than a decade," prompting Henry Morgenthau, then US Treasury Secretary, to advocate a global economic system.
The message from the United States was, "first of all, there is no limit to prosperity. Second, everyone benefits from a widely shared prosperity. "
Kristalina Georgieva, IMF chief executive, said at the end of the IMF's annual meeting that the unexpected negative effects of the trade war had become clear. "Everyone is a loser," she said.
Fifteen months ago, the United States, the world's largest importer, launched a fierce tariff war with China, the world's largest exporter. During this period, US President trump also renegotiated trade relations with other major trading partners, sometimes overthrowing them.
This week, the IMF estimated that the consequences of the trade war would slow global economic growth to 3.0% in 2019, the lowest in a decade.
The pain of the trade war is not evenly shared. The US is the least affected by the export performance of the world's top 20 economies, in part because of its large domestic consumer spending base.
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