As the finance chiefs from around the world return from their first engagement with the new administration in the White House, they are taking home a lot of unfinished business.
While the Group of 20 held their weekend meeting in the German town of Baden-Baden, it continued the tradition of presenting a veil of agreement. However, the group only did so by covering over a few cracks that underpin the world’s economy. With barely a mention of the merits of a free trade economy, the omission of the statement shows how the diplomacy of global economic development now has a fault line that may overshadow it for many months, if not years.
As early as last July, the Group of 20 promised that resist every form of perfectionism. This is a pledge that is no longer present because Norwich University online MDY degree experts believe that the previous consensus the group held on commerce is now being challenged due to the recent election and inauguration of Donald Trump. Before he and the other leaders of the group meet in July in Hamburg, Germany, they will have almost 100 days to determine if removing those words will represent the beginning or the conclusion of the new US administration to reset the terms of global trade that it has described as being economically unfair.
Suspense
Knowing that President Trump will likely reiterate some of the ideas of his campaign, the group’s leaders have wrangled for many hours about the possibility of whether trade will be mentioned at all during the summit.
Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the US delegate, wanted to have a reference that shows the need for all trades to be ‘fair’. On the other hand, China, who has previously been one of the unlikely champions in these talks, has led the defense of the existing rules that are based on the World Trade Organization.
In the end, online diplomacy degree graduates and the global finance ministers agree that the group’s goal is to strengthen trades and communities worldwide.
Shifting Around
One main area of the summit that has stayed relatively untouched is the discussion of currencies. Despite the Trump administration expressing criticism of Germany’s surplus in trade, US officials have previous signed up to the statements and comments of the G20. Although there was a lack of formal discord regarding currencies, it does not exclude the topic from becoming another battleground during the G20.
Key topics like currency and protectionism have been tossed around in the past. However, these topics will now bear the imprint of the US administration’s trade concerns.
There are No Rollbacks
The Moscow delegate believes that the most important way to prevent the world from collapsing into an economic depression that has not been seen since the 1930s is to keep protectionism in place. He has stated several times that the group ‘absolutely rollback on this decision’. The best way to prevent an economic collapse, according to the Moscow delegate, is to keep the global economy open.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, have both asked for a concerted effort to defend free trade.
Supply chains are beginning to shrink and, unfortunately, the process will continue to occur. The only question is whether it will occur in a disruptive way or naturally.