BHP warns of ‘bloody awful’ consequences of restricting free trade
BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie says US trade protectionism under President Donald Trump will threaten global growth and the fight against poverty
Melbourne/Toronto — The head of the world’s biggest mining company intensified his warnings that US trade protectionism under President Donald Trump would threaten global growth and the fight against poverty. While applauding efforts by the administration to boost US growth and infrastructure spending, BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said the consequences of restricting free trade would be "pretty bloody awful". BHP, which is also the largest overseas investor in US shale, "is very anxious about the possibility that instead of that good leadership, we could have bad leadership from the US on global free trade", the Scottish-born executive said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at a conference in Florida on Monday. Global long-term growth is about 3% but needs to be 4% to get more people out of poverty, he said. "And that won’t happen under a protectionist regime and protectionist leadership in the US" Mackenzie and chairman Jacques Nasser met Trump in New York in January, before h...
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