[anarchist23]

Since President Donald Trump has taken office he has aggressively pursued an "America First" policy.

Finance chiefs of the world’s largest economies set aside a pledge to avoid protectionism and signed up to a fudged statement on trade instead, in response to the Trump administration’s call to rethink the global order for commerce.

Group of 20 nations said in a communique on Saturday that they are “working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies.” While the U.S. didn’t get all it wanted -- such as a explicit pledge to ensure trade is fair -- that’s a much pared-down formulation compared with the group’s statement last year, and omits a promise to “avoid all forms of protectionism.”

In two days of meetings in the German town of Baden-Baden, the argument by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in his first appearance at an international forum in the role, reflects claims by President Donald Trump that his nation has had a bad deal from the current global trade setup. That attitude pitched him against most other delegates, who favored a multilateral, rules-based system as embodied in the World Trade Organization.

“My view is that the Americans were doing what any new administration would do -- they were looking at the language through their lens,” said Bill Morneau, Canada’s finance minister, who made a last-ditch push for the compromise. “Their lens is: how can trade benefit the U.S.? Everyone else has the same lens, but every other country has the advantage of being at the previous meeting.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... oes-global

Finance ministers from world's biggest economies have dropped an anti-protectionist commitment after opposition from the US.
G20 ministers left the two-day meeting without renewing their long-standing pledge to bolster free trade.
Last year, the group of the world's 20 largest economies vowed to "resist all forms of protectionism".
But since then, President Donald Trump has taken office, and is aggressively pursuing an "America First" policy.
His policies include penalties for companies which manufacture their products abroad.
Speaking after the meeting ended, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he would not read too much into his country's desire to change the language behind the comminique, as "what was as in the past" releases was "not relevant".
Mr Mnuchin added he had been "very clear that we do believe in free trade but we believe in balanced trade".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39315098