Global finance chiefs meet on Friday for the first time since Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as US president and vowed to rebuild bridges with allies to lift the world economy out of its deepest depression since the Great Depression.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a familiar face to world politicians from her days at the Federal Reserve, will join her counterparts from the rich nations of the Group of Seven (G7) for discussions. online.
Britain’s Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, who will co-chair the talks, wants the meeting to send a new signal that trillions of dollars in stimulus from G7 members will not be cut while COVID-19 vaccines are still on the rise.
Biden has proposed another $ 1.9 trillion in spending and tax cuts on top of Trump’s $ 4 trillion. Sunak is expected to say next month that he will extend his bailout programs and that fixing public finances will have to wait.
The meeting will attempt to revive attempts at a global approach to tax giant digital firms, many of them American, like Amazon and Google, a test case for Washington’s return to engagement with the rest of the world.
The G7 was also likely to help low-income countries raise funds to fight the pandemic by backing a new allocation of the International Monetary Fund’s own currency.
The United States, the IMF’s dominant shareholder, is open to a new $ 500 billion issue in what would be another reversal of the Trump administration’s stance, sources said.
In addition to the United States and Great Britain, the G7 includes Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, whose finance ministers and central bank governors will be joined by the head of the European Central Bank and the IMF.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host the first in-person summit of G7 leaders in nearly two years in June in a seaside town in Cornwall, southwest England, which will focus on rebuilding the pandemic. and climate change.
Trump threw the G7 into chaos in 2018 when he said he was withdrawing from a joint statement after a leaders’ summit due to a trade dispute with Canada.
Britain wants to make climate change and biodiversity loss one of the top priorities of its G7 presidency ahead of the COP26 conference it is due to host in November.
.
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.