When the World Trade Organisation's girector general, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, addressed the opening plenary session at the 4 th Finance for Development Conference in Seville, she insisted that sustainable global development was still achievable even against a trade backdrop defined by US President Donald Trump's tariff war.
But her message to the conference was hedged with uncertainty.
"I don't think that a conference has ever gathered in such difficult times. Difficult for the world, for our shared development aspirations, and for the means to finance the attainment of these aspirations."
Okonjo-Iweala said that developing countries that had been hoping to increase export revenues to help prevent deterioration in their balance of payments must now contend with disruption so considerable that it is feeding into financial instability.
"This is why we have argued that least developed countries as a group, and Africa as a region, should be exempted from these reciprocal tariffs, so we can better integrate them into the world trading system, not further exclude them, so that they can stand a better chance to earn the resources with which to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals."