UK urges G7 action on Covid recovery

LONDON – Britain on Friday pressed for G7 action to tackle the global fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as climate change and digital taxation, as it outlined its priorities for the elite economic club. Finance minister Rishi Sunak and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey hosted their counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States at an online conference, ahead of a summit in Britain later this year.

The G7’s first gathering since Joe Biden became US president included Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who made a clear break with the former administration of Donald Trump. “Secretary Yellen emphasised the commitment of the Biden administration to multilateralism to solve global issues,” the US Treasury Department said.

Washington “places a high priority on deepening our international engagement and strengthening our alliances”, it added, after four years of Trump’s “America First” agenda. Britain’s finance ministry said the talks involved an exchange of views about the best way to bounce back from the impact of Covid-19.

“The G7 must ensure that international financial institutions have the right tools to equip and enable vulnerable countries to respond to the pandemic,” it said. On Thursday, a French source indicated that the world’s leading economies would consider whether to use the International Monetary Fund to mobilise US$500 billion in coronavirus aid to the poorest nations.

Britain, which has suffered more than 116 000 deaths, is banking on vaccines to return to normality, helped by one developed by Oxford University and distributed by AstraZeneca. The low-cost jab, which is easier to transport and store than the ultra-low temperatures needed for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, is being offered not for profit to low- and middle-income countries.

Sunak said there was a “moral, health and economic case for rapid and fair vaccine distribution across the world”, given fears of growing “vaccine nationalism” and rows over supplies. The G7 should “take the lead in shaping support for vulnerable countries in 2021”, his office said.

G7 leaders including Biden are due to meet at a seaside retreat in Cornwall, southwest England on 11-13 June, after last year’s meeting in the United States was shelved because of the pandemic.