WTO chief urges likes of Singapore to defend global system ahead of new US-China trade war

Deepening fragmentation looms with Donald Trump’s return to White House and joint diplomacy needed, says re-elected Nigerian economist

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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the World Trade Organization’s director general, speaks at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 29, 2024. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:10am, 3 Dec 2024Updated: 6:28am, 3 Dec 2024

The head of the World Trade Organization has urged middle powers like Brazil, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Turkey to unite in defence of global free trade, warning of deepening fragmentation as the US and China brace for a new trade war with Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“They need to build a coalition of like-minded countries supportive of the multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Monday, calling such a bloc “a powerful voice for safeguarding the multilateral trading system”.

Middle-power countries are influential states that, while not superpowers or great powers, wield significant economic, geographic, demographic or military influence.

Elected last week to a second term as WTO director general, Okonjo-Iweala said middle powers should engage in “joint diplomacy with the US and China aimed at shoring up open and predictable trade relations”.

Trump has pledged to impose substantial new tariffs on foreign goods, including a 25 per cent tax on imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese products.

The president-elect has argued that the import taxes will create manufacturing jobs stateside as well as reduce the US federal deficit in implementing his “Made-in-America” and “America-first” policies.