The global trade war will badly hurt the US and global economies, WTO says

President Donald Trump’s global trade war will hurt economies around the world this year, including the US, according to a new report by the World Trade Organization. The WTO projects global economies will grow more slowly than they would without tariffs — and that will be especially the case in North America, a region dominated by the United States, which will see a greater slowdown than other areas.

A battery of new tariffs imposed by Trump and retaliated against by other nations mean global trade prospects have “deteriorated sharply,” the WTO report read. Total global trade will now shrink 0.2%, the organization expects, compared to a 2.7% growth forecast without tariffs.

The global economy and, by extension, people’s pocketbooks are very much connected to the trade in goods and services between countries. A shrinking economy typically means fewer (and lower-paid) jobs, financial difficulties for ordinary people and hard decisions about spending by companies and governments.

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