G7 leaders want to counter 'non-market' policies to ensure free trade

G7 leaders on Friday said they would seek a collective approach to counter "non-market oriented" policies and practices, including engaging with China through the G20. "With the aim of supporting a fair and mutually beneficial global economic system for all people, we will engage with others, especially G20 countries including large economies such as China,” the G7 said after a virtual leaders' meeting.

“As leaders, we will consult with each other on collective approaches to address non-market oriented policies and practices, and we will cooperate with others to address important global issues that impact all countries.”

President Joe Biden will re-introduce himself and the US to world leaders at a pair of international conferences on Friday, calling on industrialized democracies to partner in confronting the pandemic and climate change in a sharp departure from his predecessor’s foreign policy. In remarks to the Group of Seven and a speech to the Munich Security Conference, Biden will portray collective action as essential, too, in great-power confrontations with China and Russia, pivoting from former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to global affairs. Trump antagonized allies in order to secure more favorable trade deals and reduce the US military footprint, ties Biden seeks to swiftly repair.

In his first major foreign policy speech as president, Biden cast China as the “most serious competitor” of the United States.

His peer from the UK, Johnson, said the G7 — as “like-minded liberal free-trading democracies” — stood together on issues such as condemnation of the coup in Myanmar and the detention of Alexei Navalny in Russia. The G7 of the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada has a combined gross domestic product of about $40 trillion — a little less than half of the global economy. Biden will argue that democracies must fight to preserve their institutions in the wake of foreign interference in their elections.

Source: Business Standard