China’s President Xi Jinping speaks at an event held by the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week in San Francisco, California, on November 15, 2023.
Carlos Barria | Afp | Getty Images
Differences between U.S.-led Western and China-aligned economic blocs threaten global trade cooperation and economic growth, a top official with the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.
IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said in a speech at Stanford University that events such as the global pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have disrupted global trade relations in ways not seen since the Cold War.
“Increasingly, countries around the world are guided by economic security and national security concerns in determining who they trade with and invest in,” she said, adding that this has resulted in countries increasingly picking sides between China and the U.S.
While strengthening economic resilience is “not necessarily bad,” the trend of fragmentation threatens a move away …