Australia's Morrison Seeks Trade Inclusion in G-20 Communique

(Bloomberg) -- Trade should be included in the final document at the Group of 20 talks, reflecting the interests of the nations that gathered in Baden-Baden, Germany, Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said.

“Open trade, reciprocal trade, that has to be on the agenda,” Morrison said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. If trade isn’t included in the meeting’s final conclusions, “I don’t think it would reflect the will of the economies that have gathered here,” he said.

During discussions late on Friday, delegates were trying to salvage pledges on trade that had been included in previous G-20 communiques, according to people familiar with the discussions. Chinese officials were insisting on a commitment to the rules-based system that the World Trade Organization represents, while the U.S. wanted the G-20 to pledge that trade would be fair and equitable.

There was common ground on the issue of currency manipulation, Morrison said. “A race to the bottom on currency manipulation is not something that is looked well upon by anyone.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Weixin Zha in Frankfurt at wzha2@bloomberg.net, Michael McKee in New York at mmckee@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Paul Gordon