WASHINGTON – Global economic output will slow in the coming months as global finance directors flock to Washington to seek a deal with Trump’s team to lower taxes, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that in fact, the pace of negotiations is fast, with 18 different countries making recommendations so far, and Trump’s trade negotiation team will meet with 34 countries this week to discuss tariffs. Trump himself is likely to reduce tariffs and cancel market optimism about the trade agreement reached with China.
After setting benchmark import taxes for dozens of countries earlier this month, Trump suddenly put the steep tax on hold for 90 days in order to keep countries trying to negotiate less stringent interest rates.
After hundreds of financial and trade representatives came to attend the IMF and the World Bank Group's spring meetings, Blitz held talks, almost all of which had a bizarre task of signing a deal to ease the huge tariff burden since starting a second career at the White House in January.
As tariffs on goods now enter the world's largest economy in a century, global IMF projects will slow to 2.8% in 2025, its lowest performance since 3.3% in 1924.
It's not just pain for others: U.S. GDP growth will drop from 2.8% last year to 1.8% in 2025, the International Monetary Fund forecast that “notable” revised upwards as import costs climb.
Another big victim of radiation is China, which cuts its growth prospects to 4.0% this year, while the weight of the following year is 145% damaging the weight of the import tax, and is now levied from the world's largest commodity producers to the United States.
China retaliated against 125% tariffs on goods from the United States, which actually led to a trade embargo between the two largest economies, a pause for U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, but neither considered sustainable.
Best believes that U.S.-China trade tensions will be lowered, but describes future negotiations between Beijing and Beijing as “slog” that has not yet begun, according to a person who spoke to investors at the JP JPMorgan conference in Washington.
Trump in China
Later on Tuesday, Trump expressed optimism that he would make progress in China, which would significantly lower its import tax rates, but also warned: “If they don't reach an agreement, we will reach an agreement.”
Trump said a deal would lead to a “significant” reduction in tariffs on Chinese goods.
“It won't be that high,” Trump said when asked about the current interest rates. “It won't be anywhere.”
“It won't be zero,” he added.
U.S. stocks expanded trade after Trump commented, with Amazon and NVIDIA accounting for 3%, respectively, and Apple gaining 2%.
Although negotiations are slow to start from China, other members of Trump's trade team have been putting pressure with other key trading partners, despite the slightest details, and no corporate deal has been reached so far.
People familiar with the matter told Reuters that the United States and Japan are closer to temporary arrangements for trade, but many of the biggest problems are being delayed. The person said on anonymously that such a temporary framework would not solve the most difficult problems faced by the two countries in their trade relations and that it is still possible that the final deal would not be reached.
The campaign was in the US and India during a visit to Vice President JD Vance that they agreed to a wide range of negotiations. Although both sides touted it as a major progress, they agreed to the so-called “reference clauses” that primarily provide a roadmap for broader negotiations in the future.
Meanwhile, many U.S. companies reporting first-quarter results said tariffs had an impact on their business.
Consumer giant Kimberly-Clark said tariffs will cost about $300 million this year, and CEO Michael HSU noted: “The breadth and extent of tariffs and the countries involved have changed a lot since where we were possible at the end of last quarter.”
GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp told Reuters he recently met with Trump and urged him to restore the priceless regime in the aerospace industry held under the 1979 agreement. Kurp said the company's position was “understood” by the government, but added: “It's not the only project they are going to solve.”
Although GE Aerospace requires fees, it is still on the prospects of the year. “We will continue to put this out with caution, hoping that we can rebuild what we actually have before the recent tariff action,” he said in the interview.
A certainty of its outlook helps to increase GE Aerospace's stock by more than 5%. Indeed, Trump’s tough tariffs and the unstable attitude imposed on them have shocked investors over the past two months, seemingly finding some comfort in the reported revenue. The S&P 500 rose about 2.5% on a heel on another steep day on Monday.
(Andrea Shalal, David Lawder, Nupur Anand, Trevor Hunnicutt, Brendan O'Brien, Nandita Bose, Nandita Bose, Steve Holland, Noel Randewich, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Savyata Mishra, Savyata Mishra and Neil J Kanatt; by Dan Burns; by Dan Burns;
