Intergovernmental groups, including the United States and China, warned on Thursday that their collective growth would slow sharply as tariff tensions and policy uncertainty on investment and trade.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forecasts growth in 2025 fell to 2.6% from 3.6% in the previous year.

"From tariff hiking and retaliation measures to suspension of trade promotion procedures and the spread of non-tariff barriers, we are witnessing an environment that is not conducive to trade," Carlos Kuriyama, director of APEC policy support, said at a meeting in South Korea.

Curiama also said the uncertainty lies in business confidence, which has led many companies to delay investment and launch new products until the situation becomes "more predictable."

The party was at the time when U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive trade stance and massive "reciprocity" tariffs invited partners' retaliation measures. Despite the suspension of “reciprocity” tariffs, the environment remains uncertain.

Kuriyama noted that restoring confidence in trade requires not only ease of tensions, but also actions such as increasing supply chain resilience and increasing transparency in trade rules and procedures.

Comments by former and current trade officials on CNBC also echoed this view, highlighting the importance of predictability in global trade.

Former Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng told Squawk Box Asia that companies, entrepreneurs and countries are looking for trade agreements that provide some predictability for trading partners.

When Trump imposed a 25% tax on steel and aluminum, NG was the trade secretary – the United States is Canada’s largest steel market – and seeks formal consultation with the United States to address tariff-related issues.

"I think we all attribute it to our economy, people, business, doing our best, creating the right conditions environment so that there is predictability there so that there are rules there so that businesses can rely on that and they can plan. That's what they do for the government."

Malaysia’s Minister of Trade and Investment Tengku Zafrul Aziz welcomed the recent escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China, highlighting the importance of dialogue among countries.

He told CNBC that Malaysia and other ASEAN countries believe in a “rules-based multilateral trading system.”

World Trade Organization Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also participated in the event and urged “The United States should be in conversation to understand why we are at our location and what we can do”

She warned that the U.S.-China tensions said: “If the world is divided into two global trading blocks, we could lose 7% in the long run in the global GDP.”