Lagarde Says Trade Must Be Fixed Without Tit-for-Tat Tariffs

International Monetary Fund leader Christine Lagarde called on governments to de-escalate current trade disputes and instead work to fix the global system.

“This means avoiding tit-for-tat tariffs and instead finding ways to unlock the full potential of e-commerce and trade in services,” Lagarde said at the European Central Bank on Wednesday. “Global growth has been subdued for more than six years and the largest economies in the world are putting up, or threatening to put up, new trade barriers. And this might be the beginning of something else which might affect us in a more broad way.”