National Telescope national telescope newspaper
By Ekpenyong Emmanuel
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has issued a stark warning to countries engaging in tit-for-tat trade wars, cautioning that such actions could have catastrophic consequences for the global economy.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Okonjo-Iweala urged nations to remain calm in the face of tariffs, emphasizing that retaliation would only exacerbate the situation. “Please let’s not hyperventilate.
I know we are here to discuss tariffs. I’ve been saying to everybody: could we chill, also. I just sense a lot of hyperventilation,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala drew parallels with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which triggered a wave of protectionist measures and worsened the Great Depression.
She advised WTO members to explore alternative avenues for resolving trade disputes, rather than resorting to tariffs.
The WTO chief’s warning comes amid escalating trade tensions, with US President Donald Trump threatening tariffs against China, the European Union, Mexico, and Canada.
Okonjo-Iweala’s appeal for calm is seen as a timely intervention, as the global economy teeters on the brink of a trade war.
“We are very much saying to our members at the WTO: you have other avenues.
Even if a tariff is levied, please keep calm, don’t wake up and without the necessary groundwork levy your own,” she said.
“If we have tit-for-tat retaliation, whether it’s 25 per cent tariffs, 60 per cent, and we go to where we were in the 1930s, we are going to see double-digit global GDP losses, double-digit. That’s catastrophic” .
