UNITED NATIONS
\nAs governments and global markets struggle to deal with the massive upheaval unleashed by the United States\u2019 unilateral trade tariffs, Rebeca Grynspan, the head of the UN trade agency (UNCTAD) said Thursday that the poorest countries \u2013 which have a negligible effect on the US trade deficit \u2013 should be exempt.
\nMs. Grynspan was speaking in the wake of growing UN concern at the effect on-going uncertainty could have on the most vulnerable developing economies.
\nOn Tuesday, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, stated that \u201ctrade wars are extremely negative,\u201d and warned that the impact of tariffs could be \u201cdevastating.\u201d
\nTariffs are a tax on imports coming into a country which are usually charged to the exporter as a percentage of value \u2013 an extra cost which is normally passed on to the consumer.
\nIn an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday morning, the UNCTAD chief appealed for the US to reconsider its strategy, noting that the 44 Least Developed Countries contribute less than two per cent of the US\u2019s trade deficit, and that higher tariffs would only make their existing debt crisis much worse.
\nSpeaking to UN News, an international media website, Ms. Grynspan laid out the ways that UNCTAD is supporting developing nations, and advocated for closer regional trade ties, which can strengthen their hand in international trade negotiations.
\nWhen two main global economies impose tariffs, it will affect everybody, not only the economies engaged in the tariff war, Ms. Grynspan said.
\n\u201cWe are already in a \u2018new normal\u2019 of low growth and high debt, and we are worried that the global economy will slow down,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cOur emphasis has been to put attention on what can happen to countries that are more vulnerable, such as the Least Developed Countries, and small island developing States. What is happening to those countries is what really worries us.\u201d
\nAsked whether this could be the end of the post-war international financial system, as being predicted by some experts, Ms. Grynspan, \u201cWe still don\u2019t know where we will end up. One of the things that we are doing is trying to give the public a real account of what is actually taking place, and what is still just talk.
\n\u201cThe most important point is the problem of the uncertainty. If we know the final position, we will adjust, we will have strategies and we can see how to live with the decisions that are being taken. But if we have a prolonged period of uncertainty, where things change all the time, this is damaging because we don\u2019t know what to do. Investment is paralyzed because CEOs are deciding to sit and wait, which means investment will not come back at the scale the world needs.
\n\u201cOur first call is for rational decisions to be taken, so we can plan, strategize and adapt to change \u2013 but we still don\u2019t know what that change will entail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS As governments and global markets struggle to deal with the massive upheaval unleashed by the United States\u2019 unilateral trade tariffs, Rebeca Grynspan, the head of the UN trade agency (UNCTAD) said Thursday that the poorest countries \u2013 which have a negligible effect on the US trade deficit \u2013 should be exempt. Ms. Grynspan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-471963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n