G-7 to discuss global trade risks after US tariffs on China
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The meeting on May 24 to 25 among the G-7 finance ministers in the northern Italian town of Stresa will reflect on the “fragmentation of global trade.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ROME – The Group of Seven (G-7) major democracies meeting in Italy next week will discuss the risk of fragmentation in global trade after the United States imposed “very tough” tariffs against China.
US President Joe Biden unveiled this week a bundle of steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports
The meeting on May 24 to 25 among the G-7 finance ministers in the northern Italian town of Stresa will reflect on the “fragmentation of global trade, with the latest moves by the American government which has shown its cards with very tough measures against China”, Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on May 14.
“The world, as we have known it, is finishing,” Mr Giorgetti said, adding that “a trade war is under way which reflects geopolitical tensions”, and Europe still needs to carve out its own role in the evolving scenario.
Another item on the agenda for the meeting will be how to use frozen Russian assets seized after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The G-7 froze around US$300 billion (S$406 billion) worth of financial assets soon after Moscow’s attack in February 2022. Since then, the European Union and other G-7 countries have debated how and whether to use the funds to help Ukraine.
US proposals to use them to directly fund Ukraine in the war would have “quite serious legal implications”, which still need clarifying, said Mr Giorgetti, who will host the Stresa meeting as Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G-7.
The US has proposed seizing the assets in their entirety, but Europe has baulked, citing risks to the euro and massive legal repercussions.
More recently, Washington has pushed for using the assets as collateral to provide loans for Ukraine. REUTERS
