With protectionism taking toll on the growth of the world economy and affecting many countries, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the ongoing trade wars have caused uncertainties and will ultimately impact the flow of capital, goods and services.

Nirmala Sitharaman, who is in Washington 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, said on Friday that trade wars and protectionism have generated uncertainties that will ultimately impact flow of capital, goods and services.

She called for ‘concerted action’ to mitigate the disruption on account of synchronous slowdown and to invoke the spirit of multilateralism for global growth.

She further said that the increased trade integration, geopolitical uncertainties, and high accumulated debt levels necessitate strong global coordination and that we need not wait for the slowdown to become a crisis.

The 40th meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) of the IMF are being held at this year’s Annual Meetings.

During the day, three sessions of the IMFC took place. The IMFC Introductory Session was focused on Global Developments and Prospects and the discussions centred on the World Economic Outlook released on October 15, 2019.

The Early Warning Exercise discussed upcoming risks to global economy and stability.

A special session on IMF resources and governance was also held early in the day, in the context of the 15th Round of the quota discussions concluding this year.

Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Shri Atanu Chakraborty, led the Indian delegation at this session.

Sitharaman also attended the Working Lunch Session of the Development Committee (DC), the ministerial-level committee of the IMF and the World Bank. In the DC Lunch, the members discussed about the global economic outlook.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman also led the Indian delegation to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in which the deliberations centred on international taxation and Stable coins.

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 (CwA) initiative.

On the discussions at the session regarding the work underway on developing a consensus solution on tax challenges arising from digitalization, the Finance Minister stated that a unified approach to the nexus and profit allocation challenges is 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.