IMF’s Lagarde warns trade wars create ‘losers on both sides’

Washington (AFP) – IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned Thursday that a trade war sparked by unilateral US import duties would have no winners.

If there is tit-for-tat retaliation from US trading partners, which they have threatened, there will be “losers on both sides,” Lagarde told reporters.

And that outcome would have a “serious” economic impact on the US and global economies, she said, including by causing inflation to accelerate.