IMF urges US to work with partners to curb trade barriers

AFP :

The IMF on Wednesday called on the United States to work with trading partners and find ways to mutually ease trade curbs, as it issued a review of the world’s biggest economy.

The International Monetary Fund’s findings covered the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency, in which he unleashed wide-ranging tariffs on allies and competitors alike as he sought to shrink the US trade deficit and boost domestic manufacturing.

But his on-again, off-again tariffs have roiled supply chains and financial markets.

During the year, the Trump administration also sought to lower reliance on unauthorized immigrant workers and reduce the federal government’s role in the economy, the IMF noted.

But the fund said Wednesday that Washington should work constructively with partners “to address concerns over unfair trade practices and agree on a coordinated reduction in trade restrictions and industrial policy distortions that have negative cross-border effects.”

“Where trade and investment measures (including tariffs and export controls) are put in place for national security reasons, such policies should be applied narrowly,” it urged.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told journalists that the report was prepared before the Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s tariffs last Friday, adding that it would digest this development.

Since the ruling, Trump has tapped a different law to impose a new 10-percent global tariff, which he also threatened to hike to 15 percent.

Georgieva met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before the report’s release.