AFP, United Nations

The top UN trade official on Thursday urged the United States to spare the poorest countries “the pain of tariffs,” as the world braces for a possible global trade war unleashed by President Donald Trump.

“When the two main global economies impose tariffs, it will affect everybody, not only the economies engaged in the tariff war,” Rebeca Grynspan, head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said in an interview with UN News.

“We are already in a ‘new normal’ of low growth and high debt, and we are worried that the global economy will slow down,” she added.

Echoing comments by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, she expressed particular concern about the fate of smaller, vulnerable nations.

“Our emphasis has been to put attention on what can happen to countries that are more vulnerable, such as the Least Developed Countries and small island developing States,” Grynspan said. “What is happening to those countries is what really worries us,” she said.