Last month, G20 finance ministers failed to agree to a joint communique, which sets out agreements and tasks for the body, amid disagreement over a number of key issues, as reported by the Financial Times.
Casting further doubt over the future of such global collaboration, the finance ministers from several key countries — including the US, China, Japan, Canada, India, and Mexico — skipped the meetings in South Africa. Instead, those countries were represented by their ministers' deputies.
Among the more contentious issues in discussion were climate finance and international trade. While climate financing is a key pillar of the G20's priority list, the Trump administration in the US has made clear that it will not support further work on and investment in such matters. And many G20 countries oppose protectionism, a foundational part of President Trump's trade and tariff policies.
"In many ways, the US was alone," an EU official reportedly told the Financial Times. "Its trade position was on everyone's lips, with many of the discussions being about US tariffs and what is at stake for multilateralism. In general, the European countries are aligned that this protectionism is bad for the world."
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