IMF tones down censure of protectionism
Finance leaders see it as avoiding conflict with the Trump administration
GLOBAL finance leaders sought to avoid conflict with the Trump administration over trade and environmental policy and welcomed signs the world economy is pulling out of the doldrums.
The International Monetary Fund dropped a sharp condemnation of trade protectionism and references to climate change from a statement at the close of its spring meetings with the World Bank. Gone was a call for nations to “resist all forms of protectionism” that had been in an October communique. During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on China and Mexico and called global warming a hoax. Since taking office, Trump has slashed environmental regulations, and his administration has planned big cutbacks at the Environmental Protection Agency.
The meetings of the 189-nation IMF and World Bank, which wrapped up Saturday, were dominated by concerns over the rising anti-globalisation tide that carried Trump to the White House and set the stage for Britain to leave the EU.
Skepticism over the benefits of free trade persists, despite signs of economic improvement.
The global economy is finally recovering from a long period of economic languor that IMF managing director Christine Lagarde labelled “the New Mediocre.”
The IMF expects the world economy to expand 3.5 percent this year, up from 3.1 percent in 2016, helped by rising commodity prices and the surprising resilience of China’s economy.
But Lagarde and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said world governments needed to do a better job helping those being left behind economically.
Otherwise, a backlash against globalisation could pressure governments into adopting protectionist policies that would harm world trade and growth.
In its communique on Saturday, the IMF urged nations to avoid “inward-looking policies,” but did not include the stronger language of the October communique.
At a closing news conference, Lagarde and Agustin Carstens, head of the Bank of Mexico and chairperson of the IMF’s policy committee, sought to downplay the changes.
Lagarde noted that a separate document setting out the IMF’s policy agenda did retain strong language condemning protectionism and promoting efforts to combat climate change.
Carstens said that it was important to recognise the viewpoints of different countries. “We all want free and fair trade and that is what is reflected in the communique,” he said when asked why the language on protectionism had been dropped.
A similar change on the issue of protectionism was made in a communique that the Group of 20 major economies issued last month in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Steven Mnuchin, attending his first international gathering as Trump’s Treasury secretary, had defended the change in the G-20 communique at the German meeting by saying: “The historical language was not really relevant.”