Trade Wars To Impact Flow Of Capital, Goods: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the ongoing trade wars and protectionism have generated uncertainties and will ultimately impact the flow of capital, goods and services.

She also called for ‘concerted action’ to mitigate the disruption on account of synchronous slowdown and to invoke the spirit of multilateralism for global growth, the finance ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Leading the Indian delegation to the Annual Meetings Plenary session of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group held in Washington DC on Friday, Sitharaman stressed that the increased trade integration, geopolitical uncertainties, and high accumulated debt levels necessitate strong global coordination.

“We need not wait for the slowdown to become a crisis,” she said.

She also attended the Working Lunch Session of the Development Committee (DC), the ministerial-level committee of the IMF and the World Bank.

Besides, Sitharaman led the Indian delegation to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in which the deliberations centred on international taxation and ‘Stablecoins’, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable asset.

The ministers and governors also took updates from the G20 deputies on quality infrastructure investment, debt sustainability, financing for universal health care and building effective country platforms, and from the Africa Advisory Group on the Compact with Africa initiative.

On the discussions at the session regarding the work underway on developing a consensus solution on tax challenges arising from digitalisation, the finance minister stated that a unified approach to the nexus and profit allocation challenges was a promising one that merits serious attention.

“A solution that is simple to implement, simple to administer and simple to comply with is needed,” she said.

On the sideline of the above meetings, the finance minister held several bilateral meetings, including with the first Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Russia.