G20 has dropped its pledge to fight protectionism

The weekend news is centred around the G20 meeting in Germany and was a significant event given the recent rise of populism and Trump's hardline approach to world trade. The question everyone is asking is whether the world will tolerate Trump, let alone bow down to him. 

However, if this weekend's G20 is the basis for what we can expect from the communique in the near future, then it seems that the US is going to be getting their way on the issues involving free trade and climate change at least. There was no mention of rejection of protectionism and US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said he could not be happier with the deal while the world's top leaders drop a long-standing public endorsement of free trade.

This is a surprise given the last meeting of the group in China back in July 2016  and official statement contained the phrase "we will resist all forms of protectionism". So does this mean that the G20 just broke a decade-long tradition of endorsing open trade? Unlikely, but it certainly appears that Trump is serious about following through with at least some of such threats of protectionist policies and border taxes that will create headaches for countries that rely on America for trade - The U.S. imports about $2.7 trillion in goods and services annually, with half coming from G20 members China, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Germany. Other key takeaways from the official statement included concerns about downside risks to the global recovery and that monetary policy alone can't ensure balanced growth.

The notes on FX remained and how volatility is bad growth - US dollar technically deteriorating - BBH