By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Finance chiefs gathering in Washington this week were ready to discuss the global economy’s surprising resilience in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff assaults – until the U.S.-China trade war erupted again with the U.S. president threatening 100% duties on Chinese imports and sending markets into a tailspin.
The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are now certain to be dominated by questions over whether Trump’s vow to retaliate against China’s dramatically expanded export controls on rare earths will plunge the world’s two largest economies back into a full-blown trade war.
A delicate truce crafted by Washington and Beijing over the past five months brought tariffs down from triple-digit levels and prompted upgrades to the IMF’s global growth outlook. Plans for Trump to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month fueled hopes for a further thaw.
But that optimism was shattered on Friday as Trump threatened to cancel the meeting and impose a
Trump’s Reignited Trade War With China Clouds IMF, World Bank Meetings
