Interesting reports from Reuters about the future shape of the G20, a key group of the world’s most powerful economies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United States aims to pare the Group of 20 major economies back to its financial roots next year when it takes over the rotating presidency from South Africa, sources familiar with the Trump administration\u2019s plans said.<\/p>\n
Washington has scaled back its participation this year, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent skipping a G20 finance chiefs\u2019 meeting that started in Durban, South Africa, on Thursday, his second absence from an event this year.<\/p>\n
Experts and administration sources say the absence of top US officials reflects the Trump administration\u2019s skepticism about multilateral institutions such as the G20, which the U.S. helped found in 1999.<\/p>\n
US President\u00a0Donald Trump has upended the global economy with a wide-ranging trade war that has targeted many developing countries, including G20 members, while slashing foreign development funds to pursue an \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n
Three U.S. sources familiar with the matter say Washington still plans to assume the G20 presidency at the end of the year, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of the United States.<\/p>\n
But it will focus on two \u201ctracks\u201d \u2014 the leaders\u2019 summit and the financial track \u2014 eliminating other working groups and ministerial-level meetings, including those on energy, health, commerce and the environment, two of the sources said.<\/p>\n
A more streamlined G20 process would be in-line with Bessent\u2019s call in April for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to focus on their core missions of financial stability and development instead of climate finance and gender issues. The White House and Treasury had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n
Second-round reset<\/p>\n
Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said Bessent and other senior U.S. officials want to get \u201cback to basics,\u201d an approach being embraced by other G20 members.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has already withdrawn from co-chairing a working group on sustainable finance with China and it remains unclear whether Trump will join this year\u2019s leaders\u2019 summit in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Many members agreed the G20\u2032s portfolio had grown too large, triggering a review, said two sources familiar with the issue.<\/p>\n
In 2024, G20 host Brazil sought the group\u2019s endorsement of a global minimum tax on the ultra wealthy, a step that the Biden administration rejected as an overreach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere seems to be consensus at the G20 that it has expanded a lot. G20 South Africa is conducting a review of the G20 process and will provide recommendations to streamline it. That is in line with what the U.S. is looking at,\u201d one of the sources said.<\/p>\n
Activists and developing countries say they will watch U.S. actions, but that paring back could help the G20 survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hope is that development continues to be linked,\u201d said Eric LeCompte, executive director of the non-profit Jubilee USA Network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFinancial stability, debt issues and economic issues cannot be separated from development and global growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crisis origins<\/p>\n
The G20 was founded after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, before expanding to include state leaders during the global financial crisis in 2008. It has been tested by U.S.-China tensions, Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and divergent views on the Middle East conflicts.<\/p>\n
Brad Setser, a former U.S. official now at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the G20 still offered a platform for high-level bilateral meetings.<\/p>\n
He said Trump could welcome to the U.S. next year foreign leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and even Russian President Vladimir Putin if the Ukraine war ended, without the fanfare of a bilateral summit or state visit.<\/p>\n
Ben Harris, a former senior Treasury official now at the Brookings Institution, said Washington\u2019s decision to pull back offered China and others a chance to show leadership, which might not serve U.S. interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt obviously creates a vacuum, and that vacuum will be filled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interesting reports from Reuters about the future shape of the G20, a key group of the world’s most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[7593,7595,779,84,3355,7598,7597,467,7596,7594,56,54,55,7181],"class_list":{"0":"post-11688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-asx","9":"tag-australian-dollar","10":"tag-bitcoin","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-dow-jones","13":"tag-live-blog","14":"tag-live-update","15":"tag-markets","16":"tag-nyse","17":"tag-share-market","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom","21":"tag-wall-street"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}