July 26, 2018/IMF

By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Christine Lagarde, managing director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday commended the outcome of the trade meeting between the United States and European Union.

“I am pleased to learn that the United States and European Union reached agreement today to work jointly to reduce trade barriers and, together with other partners, strengthen the WTO. The global economy can only benefit when countries engage constructively to resolve trade and investment disagreements without resort to exceptional measures, ” she said.

This is coming on the heels of a surprise announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House, where the US president Donald Trump and President Jean-Claude Juncker of the European Commission  affirmed they had reached an agreement to lower trading bottlenecks between the two sides, whose annual trade in goods and services is worth more than $1 trillion.

Last two weeks, president Trump called the 28-nation strong EU, which includes many of the US’s oldest allies, an unfair trading partner and even labelled it a “foe”. Speaking to CBS on the eve of a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Mr Trump said the EU was an enemy because of “what they do to us in trade,” according to a report from the Independent.