Sleepwalking Into a Global Trade War by Anne O. Krueger

For 70 years after World War II, global growth was underpinned by ongoing efforts to boost international trade by eliminating self-defeating trade barriers. Sadly, the United States started dismantling this source of shared prosperity under Donald Trump, and it has now accelerated the process under Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON, DC – The world is embroiled in a megacrisis comprising the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, high inflation, recession fears, and rising debt distress across emerging markets and developing countries. The last thing we need is an additional source of economic harm. But that’s what we may get, in the form of another destructive trade war.

Trade wars are immensely damaging because the countries involved tend to retaliate by erecting ever-higher trade barriers. This vicious cycle was blamed for greatly prolonging the Great…

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