AFP, Bari :
G7 finance ministers meet Friday in Italy, seeking common ground and stability on future world trade after US President Donald Trump’s declaration that “America First” would be his mantra.
The meeting, which will continue into Saturday, is the first Group of Seven (G7) outing for Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary and a former Goldman Sachs banker tasked with delivering the US economic agenda.
The doubts over trade has seen the gathering in Bari tipped as being the venue for the latest battle of Bari, a fortified port on Italy’s southern Adriatic coast that has seen many power tussles over the centuries.
But in the run-up, officials from all seven members of the club of wealthy, industrialised nations have indicated that differences over Trump’s plans to roll back the boundaries of free trade have been pushed to the sidelines.
Hosts Italy have sought to find areas of agreement between Trump’s populist but still vague agenda, and the priorities of Washington’s chief European partners (Britain, France, Germany, Italy), Canada and Japan.
“There won’t be a specific session on issues of trade and protectionism but it could come up in the broader discussion on the state of the world economy,” said an Italian official involved in preparing the meeting.
A senior source from another of the participating countries added: “We are not anticipating being any clearer about what the US administration is planning in terms of trade.”
But trade is expected to feature in bilateral talks, particularly with Japan and Germany, both large net exporters suspected by Trump of benefiting unfairly from their respective dollar exchange rates.
Among the issues officially on the table are transnational tax evasion, including the policing of web-based multinationals, combating the financing of terrorism, defending financial institutions from cyber attacks and how to ensure that the benefits of growth are more evenly shared.
G7 finance ministers meet Friday in Italy, seeking common ground and stability on future world trade after US President Donald Trump’s declaration that “America First” would be his mantra.
The meeting, which will continue into Saturday, is the first Group of Seven (G7) outing for Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary and a former Goldman Sachs banker tasked with delivering the US economic agenda.
The doubts over trade has seen the gathering in Bari tipped as being the venue for the latest battle of Bari, a fortified port on Italy’s southern Adriatic coast that has seen many power tussles over the centuries.
But in the run-up, officials from all seven members of the club of wealthy, industrialised nations have indicated that differences over Trump’s plans to roll back the boundaries of free trade have been pushed to the sidelines.
Hosts Italy have sought to find areas of agreement between Trump’s populist but still vague agenda, and the priorities of Washington’s chief European partners (Britain, France, Germany, Italy), Canada and Japan.
“There won’t be a specific session on issues of trade and protectionism but it could come up in the broader discussion on the state of the world economy,” said an Italian official involved in preparing the meeting.
A senior source from another of the participating countries added: “We are not anticipating being any clearer about what the US administration is planning in terms of trade.”
But trade is expected to feature in bilateral talks, particularly with Japan and Germany, both large net exporters suspected by Trump of benefiting unfairly from their respective dollar exchange rates.
Among the issues officially on the table are transnational tax evasion, including the policing of web-based multinationals, combating the financing of terrorism, defending financial institutions from cyber attacks and how to ensure that the benefits of growth are more evenly shared.
