The presidential elections in the USA take place before the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global financial leaders face great uncertainty as they meet next week in Washington: Who will win the U.S. presidential election and shape the policies of the world’s largest economy?

Republican nominee for former President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee for Vice President Kamala Harris have said little about their plans for the election International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But hers different views Trade, tariffs and other economic issues will be on the minds of financial leaders as they attend the annual meetings of financial institutions.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva hinted at what was at stake in an opening speech on Thursday ahead of the meetings.

Without attribution TrumpShe warned that “major players, driven by national security concerns, are increasingly resorting to industrial policy and protectionism, creating one trade restriction after another.”

She said trade “will no longer be the same engine of growth as before” and warned that trade restrictions “sprinkle like cold water on an already lukewarm global economy.”

As president, Trump promises to impose one 60% duty on all Chinese goods and a “universal” tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else entering the United States, insisting that the cost of taxing imported goods be borne by the foreign countries that produce those goods.

However, Mainstream economists say They actually amount to a tax on American consumers that would make the economy less efficient and drive up inflation in the United States.

Trump has also embraced isolationism and heavily criticized multilateral institutions. During his first term, he signed an executive order withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. His administration blocked new appointments to the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body as its judges’ terms expired, leaving the organization without a functioning Appellate Body.

World Bank President Ajay Bangawho also gave a speech previewing the meetings on Thursday, spoke directly about the election in a question-and-answer session with reporters. He praised Trump for investing more during his presidency in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which provides loans to middle-income developing countries.

“The question then will be how the nuances of each government will differ,” Banga said. “I don’t know yet, so I won’t speculate on how to deal with them.”

Harris has not outlined her views on the World Bank or the IMF, although while she has supported some tariffs, she is more likely to continue the Biden administration’s approach, which favors international cooperation over threats from the Trump administration and in May as well imposed high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical devices.

Harris met Banga in June 2023 As he began his five-year term as president of the World Bank, he released a statement praising “the steps taken to evolve the World Bank – including expanding its mission to strengthen resilience to global challenges such as climate change, pandemics , fragility and conflict.” ”

Georgieva, who did not directly address the election in her speech, said: “We live in a suspicious, fragmented world where national security is high on the list of concerns for many countries. This has happened before – but never in a time of such high economic dependency. My argument is that we cannot allow this reality to serve as an excuse for doing nothing to prevent further collapse of the global economy.”

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