G-20 officials pledge to protect growth

FUKUOKA, Japan — Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies wrapped up a meeting in Japan on Sunday with a pledge to use all the policies they can to protect global growth from disruptions due to trade and other tensions.

The G-20 finance leaders said in a joint communiqué that risks from trade and geopolitical tensions were “intensifying.” They did not refer directly to the tariffs war between the United States and China, though leaders participating in the meetings indicated it was the No. 1 concern.

“We will continue to address these risks, and stand ready to take further action,” the statement said. “We reaffirm our commitment to use all policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, and safeguard against downside risks.”

Global growth appears to be stabilizing and is expected to pick up later this year and next year, the statement said.

But there was an evident rift between most participants in the meeting and the U.S., which has shifted away from support for tackling issues in multilateral forums such as the World Trade Organization in favor of a country-by-country “America First” approach.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the current global slowdown was linked to political issues, “especially trade tensions.”

He urged China and the U.S. to resolve their disputes through the WTO, saying it “is only within the multilateral framework that we can find long-term solutions for present trade tensions.”

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, likewise was blunt in warning of the potential toll from the tit-for-tat tariff hikes and other retaliatory moves between Washington and Beijing with talks on resolving their dispute in a stalemate, saying that the “road ahead remains precarious.”

“The principal threat stems from continuing trade tensions,” said Lagarde, adding that the IMF estimates the tariffs could reduce the level of global GDP by 0.5 percent in 2020, or about $455 billion.

“To mitigate these risks, I emphasized that the first priority should be to resolve the current trade tensions — including eliminating existing tariffs and avoiding new ones — while we need to continue to work toward the modernization of the international trade system,” Lagarde said.

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso appeared to have wearied of the issue by the end of the meetings.

“The China-U.S. issue is all you ask about. We have plenty of other issues that we need to consider,” he said.

While they urged the U.S. to stick to the international rules that it spent decades promoting before President Donald Trump took office, the officials both in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka and at parallel talks on trade and the digital economy in Tsukuba, near Tokyo, said there is a consensus on the need to revamp the WTO to bring it more in line with the digital economy realities of the 21st century.

Trump has said he prefers deal-making on a country-to-country basis. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he had a constructive meeting Sunday with China’s central bank Gov. Yi Gang.