U.S.-China Trade War Draws Rebuke From World Leaders at UN Event

Heads of state gathered on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday had more on their mind than North Korea’s nuclear program and impending U.S. sanctions on Iran: the impact of a global trade war.

Leaders from Latin America, Africa and Asia expressed concerns about rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies after Washington and Beijing levied billions of dollars in additional tariffs on each other and signaled little inclination for productive talks until after the U.S. midterm elections.

"The rise of trade protectionism threatens the multilateral trading system that was agreed upon in Marrakesh in 1994 as well as in Doha in 2001," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday. "We need to strengthen the rules-based international trading system and move with speed to transform other multilateral institutions and global governance structures to be in line with the current realities of the 21st century."

The International Monetary Fund warned in July that global economic output would be 0.5 percent less in two years if the U.S. follows through on all its tariff threats, other countries retaliate and tightening financial conditions lower business investment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-24/u-s-china-trade-war-draws-rebuke-from-world-leaders-at-un-event?srnd=politics-vp