The IMF has warned that the rising trade squabbles could cost the global economy roughly 430 billion U.S. dollars.
It added that escalating trade wars were threatening to add to what is already an unbalanced global economic growth trend.
Some major economies have seen relatively good growth, but GDP is dwindling in Europe and Japan.
But the IMF warned that the U.S. was especially vulnerable to global trade disputes because it would be the focus of global retaliation, with a relatively higher share of its exports taxed in global markets.