Trade barriers create financial risks, ECB’s Knot says

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Increasing geopolitical tensions and rising trade barriers create economic risks and make it harder to counter new shocks to the international financial system, European Central Bank governing council member Klaas Knot said on Thursday.

“We just had a presidential debate in the U.S. where the word tariff was used frequently, and there are more places in the world where trade barriers are being erected. That will provide a whole set of new risks,” Knot said during an interview with students at the University of Amsterdam.

“It will negatively impact our capacity to come together and jointly solve global problems.”