French minister implores US to ‘see sense’ over trade war

BUENOS AIRES: France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire said the United States must avoid pushing the world into a “survival of the fittest” scenario through titfortat trade sanctions.

Le Maire said Europe as a whole was worried about being dragged into a global trade war that would leave everyone as “losers” after US President Donald Trump initiated retaliatory measures by hitting China and traditional allies the EU, Canada and Mexico with trade tariffs.

“We are all, particularly us European countries, worried about this trade war that was launched a few weeks ago,” Le Maire said from Buenos Aires, where the twoday Group of 20 summit amongst finance ministers got underway.

“This trade war will produce only losers, it will destroy jobs and put pressure on global growth. We call on the United States to see sense, to respect the rules of multilateralism and to respect their allies.”

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde opened the summit by reiterating her fears that increasing trade restrictions would hurt global GDP.

Lagarde said that taking into account “current announced and in process measures” an IMF simula tion “indicates” that in a worstcase scenario a half point would be cut from global GDP, amounting to some US$430bil (RM1.7 trillion). And this despite projected growth in the world economy of 3.9%.

What concerns Le Maire is how supposed allies have ended up fighting over trade.

“Americans and Europeans are allies, we cannot understand how Europeans, can be affected by US trade tariffs,” he said.

“What we want is to reconstitute multilateralism. Global trade cannot be based on survival of the fittest.

“We understand there is a problem with global trade, a difference based on access to public markets.”

Le Maire said the only way to solve such issues was through dialogue between the United States, EU and China, rather than an escalation of punitive measures.