U.S. defends Trump’s trade barriers, exhorts IMF
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration pushed back Friday against widespread complaints against its aggressive America First trade policies and urged the International Monetary Fund to do more to combat unfair trade practices.
Wrapping up two days of talks, finance officials from the world’s 20 most powerful economies said that they had not reached any breakthrough on how to calm trade tensions between the United States and China, but all participants agreed that it was important to coordinate other economic policies as much as possible.
“We have to keep this group working together,” said Nicolas Dujovne, the Treasury minister of Argentina.
Dujovne met with reporters Friday to summarize talks that the G-20 nations had held as a prelude to the spring meetings of the 189-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank. Those meetings will conclude Saturday.
The United States was represented at the talks by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who was attending his first G-20 gathering after taking over the top Fed job from Janet Yellen in February.
In remarks Friday, Mnuchin said the Trump administration was convinced that unfair global trade practices were impeding growth in the United States and other nations, “acting as a persistent drag on the global economy.”
He called on the IMF to go beyond its traditional role as an emergency lender for countries in financial crisis and strengthen its monitoring role of individual country’s trade practices, especially nations running large trade surpluses.
“The IMF must step up to the plate on this issue, providing a more robust voice,” Mnuchin said. “We urge the IMF to speak out more forcefully on the issue of external imbalances.”