The Treasury Department said on Friday that Yellen will work during the meetings in Marrakesh to advance reforms of the World Bank and other multilateral development banks that she launched a year ago to expand their missions beyond poverty reduction in order to help combat climate change and other global challenges.
Yellen will also pressure IMF member states to contribute to increasing quota-based lending resources in the fund without any changes in the contribution structure that would give more weight to large emerging market countries such as China, India and Brazil.
A US Treasury Department official also said that Yellen would urge the countries and institutions participating in the meetings to provide the funding Ukraine needs to confront the war launched by Russia against it.
But Yellen’s trip, during which she will stop in Luxembourg to attend the Eurogroup finance ministers’ meeting on October 16, comes in the wake of a US funding crunch that saw Congress narrowly avoid shutting down the federal government with a temporary funding measure that did not include money requested for Ukraine.
Hard-line Republicans in Congress also led an insurrection that led to the unprecedented ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Efforts to find a replacement for McCarthy could delay permanent spending increases and other legislation.
Nikki Budzinski, a Democratic representative from Illinois, expressed her concern about the image of “instability and chaos” at home at a time when Yellen is pressing abroad to achieve American interests.
“I think everyone around the world is paying attention,” Budzinski told Reuters. “America is leading and this is not going unnoticed.”
Asked whether events in Congress undermined Yellen’s message, the Treasury Department official said the secretary had credibility globally because she was able to resolve issues such as rallying support for Ukraine.
He stated that the financing packages proposed by the Treasury Department from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should receive some bipartisan acceptance in Congress. The Biden administration seeks to portray to countries that the two institutions are alternatives to borrowing from China.
He added, “More broadly and across a range of issues, we just have to step in and talk to our partners… They realize that every country has its own policies, and everyone understands that, so you just have to try to accomplish what you can and talk to your partners while you are there.”
The official said that Yellen will discuss in Luxembourg with her counterparts in the European Union ways to improve alignment between the American and European approaches to China’s economic practices.
Yellen made clear during her visit to Beijing in July that the Biden administration seeks healthy competition with China on a level playing field, but will not hesitate to protect its national security interests and “de-risk” its supply chains.
In response to a question about whether Yellen would meet with Chinese officials in Marrakesh, the official declined to comment on the schedule of her bilateral meetings.
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