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Digital technologies are changing the way we live, work, and trade. As WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala often says, the future of trade is digital, and it must be inclusive.
Trade has become well-established and recognised among practitioners and policymakers as an effective way to support and advance international development and poverty reduction. Multilateral institutions, including multilateral development banks (MDBs), have embraced this perspective, and most leading MDBs today put significant priority on the nexus between trade and development.
The clue is in the name: Liberation Day. When President Trump announced at the beginning of his speech that he was declaring the independence of the United States from the global trade system, this was not a negotiation. The rhetoric used was violent: “America has been looted, pillaged and raped by other countries.” The scale of the tariffs imposed was unprecedented—a minimum of 10% and for some, notably China, much higher.
