World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, April 12,2018. The WTO says that global trade is expected to remain strong, merchandise trade volume growing 4.4 percent in 2018, 4.0 percent in 2019. Xu Jinquan/ Press Association. All rights reserved.‘The WTO is unfair to US’. So tweeted Donald Trump on Friday, 6 April. The tweet followed his launch of a number of tariffs to protect US steel and aluminum, more or less direct threats to the EU, and further tariffs specifically targeting China. Is a global trade war about to begin? Has the WTO (founded in 1995, a true child of the global age) become pointless?
In 1995 the EU had been one of the WTO’s main promoters, and not without reason. Even now, in spite of the protracted Eurozone crisis, the European Union remains the world’s biggest trade power (ahead of the USA and China), also because of its ‘single voice’ within the WTO, where it is represented by its member countries and as a single bloc. Foreign trade is a key asset of Germany (let us just think about cars, electronics and pharmaceuticals), the Netherlands, Italy, all in the world top ten of the countries with the biggest foreign surplus.
In contrast, the US has the world’s biggest trade deficit. No wonder that Mr Trump wants to impose tariffs on foreign goods. For now, the EU has been exempted, but will this ‘privilege’ last?
