BADEN-BADEN: Finance ministers from the world’s top nations gathered Friday in Germany, with fears of a looming trade war over US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy yet to be dispelled.
Trump has already torn up a transpacific free-trade pact, threatened punitive tariffs against multinationals with factories outside the US and attacked “currency manipulation” by export giant China.
And his stated aim of keeping jobs at home by making it costly for American companies to outsource is likely to dominate talks at the G-20 gathering of finance ministers and central bankers in the western German spa town of Baden-Baden.
Trump’s emissary, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, faces scrutiny from Washington’s key trading partners for clues on whether the world’s biggest economy fully intends to abandon its long-standing support of open markets and free trade.
A source close to the talks told AFP that sticking points remained on trade and climate change funding as the gathering got underway on Friday.
The US delegation refused to include any language rejecting protectionism in a final statement to be signed by ministers Saturday, the source said. Countries like France, Italy, China and Brazil argued — against US resistance — for keeping a reference to “rules-based” trade in the final communiqué, while Germany pushed for a compromise solution referring only to “fairness.”
On the eve of the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a rare joint pledge, saying they would “together fight for free-trade and open markets.”
On Thursday, following talks with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Mnuchin said Washington had no desire to fight “trade wars” with other economic powers. Mnuchin said Trump’s administration would keep a close eye on the levels of key global currencies, but pursue policies in the interest of “economic growth that is good for the US and the rest of the world.” Schaeuble told public broadcaster SWR on Friday morning that Mnuchin had told him explicitly that “of course the Americans are for free trade and also for us setting that out in Baden-Baden.”
“I think we will come to an agreement," the veteran finance minister went on.
For French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, the problem is that Washington did not appear to have a clear position on trade.
“We do not have a well-argued position from the US and that is the main difficulty that we have today,” he told AFP, adding that it is the “fear of a lack of position that is weighing on the debate.” “It is possible that the US is unable to say what they plan to do beyond the simplistic declarations in a tweet,” he added.
G-20 ministers meet as ‘America First’ casts pall
G-20 ministers meet as ‘America First’ casts pall
Work suspended on Riyadh’s massive Mukaab megaproject: Reuters
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has suspended planned construction of a colossal cube-shaped skyscraper at the center of a downtown development in Riyadh while it reassesses the project's financing and feasibility, four people familiar with the matter said.
The Mukaab was planned as a 400-meter by 400-meter metal cube containing a dome with an AI-powered display, the largest on the planet, that visitors could observe from a more than 300-metre-tall ziggurat — or terraced structure —inside it.
Its future is now unclear, with work beyond soil excavation and pilings suspended, three of the people said. Development of the surrounding real estate is set to continue, five people familiar with the plans said.
The sources include people familiar with the project's development and people privy to internal deliberations at the PIF.
Officials from PIF, the Saudi government and the New Murabba project did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Real estate consultancy Knight Frank estimated the New Murabba district would cost about $50 billion — roughly equivalent to Jordan’s GDP — with projects commissioned so far valued at around $100 million.
Initial plans for the New Murabba district called for completion by 2030. It is now slated to be completed by 2040.
The development was intended to house 104,000 residential units and add 180 billion riyals to the Kingdom’s GDP, creating 334,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2030, the government had estimated previously.
