Escalating trade wars “pose real risks” to the global economy, potentially threatening millions of jobs, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said in a speech in London on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump is locked in a trade war with China, rolling out billions of US dollars in tariffs in a bid to tackle its trade deficit and rein in what Washington considers unacceptable Chinese trade practices.
Trump has also targeted the EU, and Azevedo told business heads at the Mansion House speech that there appears to be “no end in sight” to the tit-for-tat action, pleading with world leaders to negotiate.
“A continued escalation of tensions would pose real risks,” he said.
WTO economists calculate that “a complete breakdown in international trade cooperation would see a sharp rise in tariffs, knocking up to 17 percent off global trade growth and 1.9 percent off overall global economic growth.
“These effects would cause significant disruptions for workers, firms, and communities as they adjust to this new reality,” Azevedo said.
“Potentially millions of workers would need to find new jobs; firms would be looking for new products and markets; and communities for new sources of growth,” he added.
Responding to claims that unfair trade practices are going unpunished under the current system, Azevedo said that political solutions were needed and called on leaders to work toward such solutions at next month’s G20 summit in Argentina.
Trump has slapped tariffs on US$250 billion in Chinese goods imported by the US and threatened to go even further.
The US accuses China of rampantly stealing technology and seeking an unfair trade advantage by forcing foreign businesses to work with local partners, handing over their know-how in the process.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San