Covid focus of first G7 talks post-trump

THE new administration of US President Joe Biden joins international talks on the global economy this week with other rich nations expecting a decisive break from the “America First” nationalism of Donald Trump.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will join tomorrow’s online meeting with her Group of Seven (G7) peers at which they are likely to renew promises to pursue huge stimulus programmes to aid the economic recovery from Covid-19.

The meeting, the first G7 encounter since Biden took office, will also seek to breathe new life into longrunning efforts to solve the problem of how to tax giant digital firms, many of them American, such as Amazon and Google.

Britain, which is chairing the meeting, has said the talks will provide a chance to find “global solutions” to the hammer blow dealt to the world’s economy by the pandemic.

A G7 source said officials would discuss “how best to shape and respond to the phases of the global recovery from Covid-19”, including support for workers and businesses in the near term, while ensuring fiscal sustainability in the long term.

Other aides said there would be a discussion on co-ordinating fiscal stimulus among the G7 countries, which aside from the US and Britain include Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada. They will also be joined by the heads of their national central banks and the European Central Bank.

Biden has proposed a further $1.9 trillion (about R28 trillion) in spending and tax cuts on top of Trump’s $4 trillion. British finance minister Rishi Sunak is expected to say in March that he will borrow yet more money – after racking up the biggest ever peacetime deficit – while promising to fix the public finances after the crisis.

The source said the meeting would also discuss support for vulnerable countries to aid the global recovery. The finance ministers and central bank governors were likely to sign a joint statement.

Britain wants to make climate change and biodiversity loss a top priority.