ROME (Reuters) – The international community must avoid exacerbating existing protectionist sentiment, Italy’s central bank governor said on Friday, after Donald Trump’s election stoked fears of hefty tariffs and trade wars.
In his campaign Trump has said he would impose 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods and a tax of around 10% on imports from European countries, raising the prospect of a gloomy outlook for the already weak euro zone’s growth.
Governor Fabio Panetta said protectionist sentiments had been exacerbated by shocks that weighed on economies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis.
“As global trade fragments, major countries are increasingly reluctant to rely on trading partners with which they lack stable political, economic or cultural ties,” Panetta said at a World Bank Group (WBG) conference in Rome.
He added that to avoid the world dividing into economic, political and military blocs, it was essential for “the global community set differences aside in order to find shared solutions to the interconnected challenges that affect us all”.
(Reporting by Sara Rossi; Editing by Peter Graff)
