The head of the World Trade Organization talks frequently to world leaders, including those from France, Germany, Japan and Britain, but he has never spoken to President Donald Trump, despite the intense US focus on trade.
Even so, WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo said he agrees that the global trading system needs reforms, and soon.
But in an interview on the Freakonomics radio podcast released Thursday, he cautioned against blithe predictions that the exchange of punitive tariffs among major trading powers will not hit their economies.
Trump has relentlessly pursued a confrontational trade policy, including harsh tariffs on steel and aluminum, and on $250 billion in annual imports from China, nearly half the total from that country.
He has also accused the WTO of treating the United States unfairly. Washington has blocked the global trade body from establishing panels to…
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