Global finance leaders on Saturday dropped a sharp condemnation of trade protectionism and references to climate change from a closing statement that wrapped up the spring meetings of the 189-nation IMF and the World Bank.
This year’s meetings were dominated by a debate over how to respond to a rising tide of anti-globalization sentiment evidenced in the US by the election of US President
Donald Trump, who pledged during last year’s campaign that he would reduce the US’ huge trade deficits which he blamed for the loss of millions of good-paying factory jobs.
Photo: AFP
In its communique, the IMF urged nations to avoid “inward-looking policies,” but it did not include tougher language the IMF had used in an October last year statement in which it had called on all countries to “resist all forms of protectionism.”
The new statement also dropped any mention of the threat of climate change.
Trump has threatened to impose punitive tariffs of up to 45 percent against Mexico, China and other nations he believes are competing unfairly with US workers.
At a closing news conference, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and Bank of Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens, who chairs the IMF’s policy committee, sought to downplay the changes.
Lagarde said that strong language condemning protectionism and promoting efforts to combat climate change, while taken out of the communique, remained in a separate document setting out the IMF’s policy agenda.
Carstens said that it was important on the issue of trade to recognize the viewpoints of different countries.
“We all want free and fair trade and that is what is reflected in the communique,” he told reporters when asked why the language on protectionism had been dropped.
At a joint appearance with Lagarde on Saturday, US Secretary of the Treausry Steven Mnuchin said that the internal debate over the wording of the IMF communique had taken much less time than the debate over the wording of the G20 communique last month.
He said that the Trump administration’s goal was to make trade more fair and was not aimed at erecting protectionist barriers.
“The United States is probably the most open trading market there is,” Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin was also asked about the administration’s tax plan, which Trump on Friday said would be unveiled on Wednesday.
He said the US administration’s goal was to simplify the tax system for both individuals and businesses.
“We want to create a system where the average American can do their taxes on a postcard, not a book,” Mnuchin said. “Maybe a big postcard, but you can still stick it in the mail.”
Mnuchin did not provide details of the tax plan, which Trump has said would provide a “massive” tax cut for Americans.
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