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By Tom Miles
GENEVA, March 5 (Reuters) - The head of the World TradeOrganization told member states on Monday they must prevent "thefall of the first dominoes" in a trade war and warned of a realrisk of triggering an escalation of global trade barriers and adeep recession.
World trade policy is in turmoil because of U.S. PresidentDonald Trump's announcement last week that he planned to putcontroversial tariffs on steel and aluminium, prompting threatsof tit-for-tat actions and concerns for the trade system itself.
"We must make every effort to avoid the fall of the firstdominoes. There is still time," WTO Director General RobertoAzevedo told the heads of WTO delegations at a closed-doormeeting in Geneva.
"In light of recent announcements on trade policy measures,it is clear that we now see a much higher and real risk oftriggering an escalation of trade barriers across the globe,"Azevedo said, according to a copy of his statement released bythe WTO.
Azevedo is normally very conservative in remarks about WTOmembers' trade policies, but he also plays a role as a guardianof the global trading rules, a bulwark against protectionism.
On Friday he broke his silence on Trump's tariff plan,expressing concern and saying a trade war would be in nobody'sinterest. his statement at Monday's meeting, he did not name anyone country but sounded a more urgent warning.
"Once we start down this path it will be very difficult toreverse direction. An eye for an eye will leave us all blind andthe world in a deep recession," Azevedo said.
Trade officials said that many diplomats at the meetingvoiced concern about protectionism, and 11, including the28-state European Union, expressed very strong concerns about Trump's announcement on Thursday specifically.
As well as the EU, Mexico, Japan, Australia, China, SouthKorea, Brazil, Norway, Canada, India and Venezuela all warned ofthe knock-on effect of Trump's action and urged the UnitedStates to think again.
Trade officials said the U.S. representative at the meeting,originally called to discuss a recent ministerial conference inArgentina, spoke only about the original agenda withoutmentioning the furore over the U.S. tariff plan. (Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)