Bank of England warns global trade war will slow world economic growth
Beijing has vowed to respond to Trump’s looming action with tariffs on US goods, so Washington has threatened even steeper tariffs covering another $400bn in Chinese goods
London — A global trade war, at risk of escalating, may already be slowing world economic growth, Bank of England (BoE) governor Mark Carney warned in a speech on Thursday. Carney spoke on Friday as the US was set to begin enforcing tariffs on more than $34bn in Chinese imports. "There are some tentative signs that this more hostile and uncertain trading environment may be dampening activity," Carney said in a speech titled, From Protectionism to Prosperity. "For example, survey measures of global export orders and manufacturing output have fallen back from highs at the start of this year," added Canadian national Carney, whose own country is embroiled in a cross-border trade war with the US. The BoE, in addition, forecast that further escalation in the trade war, or a 10 percentage point rise in tariffs between the US and all its trading partners, could erase 2.5% of US output and 1% of global economic output. "Protectionism affects the real economy through three channels," Carney ...
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