Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has strongly admonished global leaders, including the United States’ Donald Trump, urging them to stop escalating the tariff war which is causing havoc on the global economy.
Okonjo-Iweala made this known in a press statement released by her, where she talked about her deep concerns about the series of trade measures recently announced by the United States, particularly the ones revealed on the 2nd of April.
The WTO DG asserted that the WTO Secretariat is closely observing the developments and is currently communicating with several member states. She opined:
“Many members have reached out to us and we are actively engaging with them in response to their questions about the potential impact on their economies and the global trading system.”
Reliant Nigeria News understands that Okonjo-Iweala also warned that recent tax hikes and protectionist policies rolled out earlier this year could shrink global trade.
She also pointed out that according to the WTO’s early estimates, these combined measures may lead to a 1% drop in the volume of goods traded worldwide in 2025. She further noted that it marks a strong downward revision of almost four percentage points from earlier projections.
Further, the WTO chief stressed that an important part of international trade (currently about 74%), currently works under the organization’s Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) terms. But this figure according to her, has dropped from 80% at the beginning of the year, marking an alarming trend toward protectionism. She urged that WTO members must stand together in order to safeguard these gains.
Okonjo-Iweala further asserted that some of the WTO’s roles as a global forum are trade dialogue and dispute resolution. Hence, she encouraged all member countries to use the organisation’s mechanisms to engage constructively and seek out harmonious solutions before the situation worsens more than it has.
Leave a Reply