Mnuchin: US partners more comfortable with Trump on trade

The meeting of the Group of 7 finance ministers in the southern Italian seaside town of Bari kicked off Friday with a discussion with economists on how to make growth benefit more people.

The decision to use the same wording in Bari suggests the United States’ partners have made little progress in convincing President Donald Trump to commit to a multilateral approach to trade that he has threatened to abandon.

OECD officials say USA tax treaties with other countries already contain the multilateral deal’s principles.

Mr Mnuchin said he believed his counterparts from other countries were becoming more comfortable with the new administration “now they have spent time with me and have listened to the president and listen to what the message on what the economic agenda is”.

“The global economy is facing a prolonged period of modest growth and high or rising inequalities in many countries, notably within countries with middle and lower income classes being particularly affected”, the statement said.

The US is adamantly challenging the status quo in worldwide trade, and as a result, the most recent G7 meeting produced an indecisive communique, indicating the rising degree of uncertainty, possibly bearing the seeds of trade wars and greater currency manipulations in the global struggle for competitiveness. “The U.S. administration is quite new and the cooperation is improving”, Schaeuble said.

Heading into the Bari meeting, U.S. partners are now aware the Trump administration’s focus is on having a “more fair, balanced, reciprocal trading relationship”, the official said.

Mnuchin said preliminary discussions have begun with Canada and Mexico to renegotiate NAFTA, a topic that came up for discussion during his one-on-one meeting with Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

“Global recovery is gaining momentum, yet growth remains moderate and GDP is still below potential in many countries, with the balance of risks tilted to the downside”, the leaders said in the communique.

The tax reform plans were also questioned by some European officials.

The ministers from the group of seven wealthy democracies will say that cyber incidents represent a growing threat to their economies and that tackling them should be a priority, Italian officials said.

European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told reporters he hoped USA policy would not abandon multilateralism and free trade.

The finance chiefs also vowed to unite against cyber crime, following a globe-spanning wave of cyber attacks that hit computer systems in scores of countries on Friday, notably disrupting Britain’s health care service and bringing production at carmaker Renault to a standstill in France.

That divergence augurs for potential disagreements when the nations’ leaders gather in Sicily later this month – an event which marks Trump’s first major global summit as U.S. President.