US growth could slow 4% on trade turmoil: World's top shipper

AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, is warning that escalating trade conflicts could end up hitting the U.S. harder than any other economy.

Maersk CEO Soren Skou said during a presentation from the company’s headquarters in Denmark that while trade policies could slow global growth marginally, by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent, the impact could be as much as 3 percent or 4 percent in the U.S.

Part of the reason Skou believes that could be the case is because the U.S. imports a lot of goods, but the problem would be exacerbated if the Trump administrations begins to use tariffs to focus on consumer goods.

While other business leaders have cautioned that trade conflicts could slow U.S. growth, Maersk, which operates in economies across the world, has a comprehensive perspective of the global economy. The company ships about one-fifth of the world’s consumer goods that are transported by sea.

With proposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of additional goods hanging in the balance, China and the U.S. are expected to resume trade talks this week, though they will be conducted among lower level officials from both countries. The renewed discussions are expected to begin a process toward ending the trade conflict by November, at which time President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump will hold a summit.