Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has reacted to the United States’ newly announced tariff measures, describing them as a serious blow to global trade and economic growth.
On the 2nd of April 2025, President Donald Trump declared a sweeping tariff policy, placing fresh duties on all imports into the US, Nigeria was hit with a 14 percent tariff.
In a statement shared on the 4th of April, 2025, Okonjo-Iweala confirmed that the WTO secretariat is “closely monitoring and analysing the measures announced by the nation.”
She disclosed that many WTO member states have reached out, asking tough questions about the implications for their economies and the broader global trading system. “The recent announcements will have substantial implications for global trade and economic growth prospects,” she said.
She revealed that WTO’s early data suggests a possible 1% contraction in global merchandise trade this year.
That’s nearly four percentage points lower than previous projections. The cause? The latest tariffs and those implemented since the start of the year.
Okonjo-Iweala warned that this trend could escalate into a tariff war, with countries slapping retaliatory duties on one another fueling a deeper slump in trade activity.
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She pointed out that “despite these new measures, the vast majority of global trade still flows under the WTO’s Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) terms,” adding that the share has now dropped to 74% from about 80% at the beginning of the year.
According to her, large-scale trade measures like these risk triggering significant trade diversion effects. She urged WTO members to act wisely and “manage the resulting pressures responsibly to prevent trade tensions from proliferating.”
“The WTO was established to serve precisely in moments like this as a platform for dialogue, to prevent trade conflicts from escalating, and to support an open and predictable trading environment,” she said.
She called on member countries to engage within the WTO framework and seek common ground instead of falling into economic confrontation.