Relations between the new US administration and its main world partners are warming up despite lingering reservations over Donald Trump's 'America First' economic agenda, officials said today as G7 finance ministers met in Italy.
The talks, the first Group of Seven outing for US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, followed the overnight announcement of a surprise trade accord between Washington and China.
A senior US Treasury official said Mnuchin had been quizzed on a series of issues, including Trump's tax-cutting plans.
"The tenor was very cooperative and open; people aren't shy about asking direct questions and people get direct answers," the official said.
The China deal, securing better access to the big Chinese market for US beef, natural gas and some financial services, was welcomed by Mnuchin.
"We are excited about US trade policies and I think you probably saw we made an announcement of a 100 day economic plan with the Chinese so I think we're very happy with how we're proceeding with the Chinese," the former banker said.
European Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the deal showed Trump's administration could be more flexible and pragmatic than initially feared.
"We need to analyse it but it proves one thing: there is, finally, no global protectionist attitude," the Commissioner said.
"It also proves a capacity to change an ideological position," he added.
The China deal came just months after Trump was attacking Beijing in an election campaign in which he promised to restore trade barriers if he felt they were needed to protect US interests.
The rhetoric caused alarm among other members of the G7 club of wealthy democracies, who are lobbying Trump's team to stick with the existing system of rules-based, largely liberalised global trade.
Trade issues were pushed to the sidelines in Bari, with host Italy seeking to find areas of overlap between Trump's still vague agenda, and the priorities of Washington's chief European partners (Britain, France, Germany, Italy), as well as Canada and Japan.
"Obviously the climate has changed," Moscovici said. "The (US) administraton is progressively defining its own policy agenda and integrating better the global framework in which they have to move."
There was a indicator of lingering mistrust from outgoing French finance minister Michel Sapin, who said Mnuchin had welcomed the election of Emmanuel Macron as France's new president.
"I allowed myself to tell him that an attack on the Champs Elysee was never going to affect the outcome," Sapin said.
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