Rising barriers to trade put global poverty goals at risk, Indonesia says

Jakarta

THE anti-trade mood sweeping parts of the world will hurt global efforts to pull millions of people out of poverty, according to Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

The former World Bank managing director said in an interview in Jakarta that she's worried about the threat from rising barriers to trade at a time when "populist sentiment has been translated into political rhetoric and policy, which is really against the wider need".

Anxiety is growing in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, as trade policies turn more protectionist under US President Donald Trump. He pulled the US out of a Pacific trade deal that would have benefited Asian nations from Malaysia to Japan, and has th…