FINANCE MINISTERS
G-20 finance ministers to meet in shadow of ‘America first’ policy
IMF MD Christine Lagarde urges the G-20 to ‘collectively avoid self-inflicted injuries’ while Germany adopts a conciliatory tone
Berlin — Finance ministers from the world’s top nations will gather in Germany on Friday amid mounting fears that US President Donald Trump could upend the global economic order with his America First policy. Within two months of moving into the White House, Trump has torn up the trans-Pacific free trade pact, threatened punitive tariffs against multinationals with factories outside the US and attacked "currency manipulation" by China. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will make his first official foreign foray when he joins the Group of 20 (G-20) gathering of finance ministers and central bankers from Friday in the western German spa town of Baden-Baden. The former Goldman Sachs banker faces scrutiny by Washington’s key trading partners for clues on whether the world’s biggest economy fully intends to abandon its long-standing support of free trade. Germany adopted a conciliatory tone ahead of the meeting, shrugging off Trump’s attacks against Berlin over its large trade surplus...
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