TOKYO (AP) — Global free trade is in crisis, the head of the World Trade Organization chief said Tuesday while meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shigaru Ishiba on Tuesday.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, told Ishiba that she has high expectations for Japan as a champion of open markets as U.S. President Donald Trump disrupts world commerce with his fast-changing tariffs and other policies.
“Trade is facing very challenging times right now and it is quite difficult,” she said. “We should try to use this crisis as an opportunity to solve the challenges we have and take advantage of new trends in trade.”
Japan, as “a champion of the multilateral trading system” must help maintain, strengthen and reform the WTO, the Japanese Foreign Ministry cited her as saying.
Later Tuesday, the WTO chief met with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and issued a joint statement, saying that “in a time of uncertainty and disruption, the value of the multilateral trading system is unquestionable.” Japan said in the same statement the current trade turmoil “would have a significant impact on the global economy and the entire multilateral trading system” and called for promoting WTO reforms, including its rule-making function, dispute settlement and monitoring of the implementation of agreements.
They met a day after the United States and China said they had agreed to slash recent sky- high tariffs for 90 days to allow time for negotiations.
Japan is among many countries yet to reach a deal with the Trump administration on hikes to U.S. tariffs, including those on autos, steel and aluminum.
The WTO played a pivotal role in past decades as the U.S. and other major economies championed the trade liberalization that facilitated the growth of global supply chains, many of which are anchored in China. By dismantling many protectionist barriers to trade, it has aided the ascent of Japan and China, and many other countries, as export manufacturing hubs.
Since taking office for a second time, Trump has prioritized higher tariffs to try to reduce U.S. imports and compel companies to locate factories in the United States, doubling down on a trade war that he launched during his first term.
Okonjo-Iweala and Ishiba agreed that WTO member countries should unite to restore the organization's capacity to address challenges.
The trade chief visited Japan to strengthen cooperation between the east Asian country and the WTO to maintain and reinforce the multilateral trading system, Japanese officials said.
She also met with Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto.
Associated Press video journalist Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Vice minister of Finance Liao Min, left, gestures toward a journalist at a news conference at the Chinese mission to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, May 11, 2025, alongside Vice Premier He Lifeng and Li Chenggang, vice minister of commerce. (AP Photo/Jamey Keaten)
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, left, meets with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the latter's office in Tokyo Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, left, shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the latter's office in Tokyo Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer, Minnesota's Twin Cities on Sunday braced for what many expect will be a new normal over the next few weeks as the Department of Homeland Security carries out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes, protesters confronted federal agents and attempted to disrupt their operations by blowing car horns and whistles and banging on drums.
There was some pushing and several people were hit with chemical spray just before agents banged down the door of one home on Sunday. They later took one person away in handcuffs.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring and gathering information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said on Sunday that the investigation into shooting death of Renee Good shouldn’t be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith both said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiassed investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dismissed complaints from Minnesota officials about local agencies being denied any participation in the investigation during an interview with CNN.
“We do work with locals when they work with us,” she said, criticizing the Minneapolis mayor and others for not assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Frey and Noem each pointed fingers at the other for their rhetoric after Good's killing, and each pushed their own firm conclusions about what video of the incident shows. The mayor stood by his assertions that videos show “a federal agent recklessly abusing power that ended up in somebody’s dying.”
“Let’s have the investigation in the hands of someone that isn’t biased," Frey said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The killing of Good on Wednesday by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.
Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis on Saturday where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.
Associated Press journalists Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
