WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is telling world financial leaders that the U.S. economy has grown stronger as the Biden administration rejected isolationism and issued thinly veiled criticism of former President Donald Trump’s policies two weeks before the U.S. election.
Yellen opened the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank on Tuesday by highlighting US economic growth since the country was gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Without mentioning Trump by name, she said in a preliminary draft of her remarks that the Biden administration had ended a period of international isolationism that had “left America and the world worse off.”
“We went from millions losing their jobs to a historic recovery in the labor market,” Yellen said. She said U.S. economic growth “this year and last has been nearly twice as fast as most other advanced economies, even as inflation fell earlier.”
The meetings mark the last major international financial gathering held during the Biden administration and come as economic issues are a top priority for American voters. Republicans have blamed the Biden-Harris administration for inflation, which hit a 40-year high before falling. Trump said during a September debate that the government has “destroyed the economy.”
Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican nominee Trump or Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, according to an October survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research .
Whoever wins the US elections will also have a huge impact on global finance and the global economy.
Trump and Harris have spoken little about their plans for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But they have different views on trade, tariffs and other economic issues. Trump is skeptical of the world’s financial institutions and promises heavy tariffs if elected. Harris is more likely to continue the Biden administration’s approach of prioritizing international cooperation over threats, although she has supported some tariffs.
Yellen, like other federal officials, is barred from partisan political activity by the Hatch Act. But in her speech, she effectively promoted a potential Harris administration by touting Biden-Harris initiatives on climate, health care, infrastructure spending and other areas.
She alluded to Trump’s international leadership, saying: “From day one, we have rejected the isolationism that has made America and the world worse off and have pursued global economic leadership that supports economies around the world and delivers significant benefits for the American people and the American economy.”
Trump, who has embraced isolationism and criticized multilateral institutions, is promising as president a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods and a “universal” tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else entering the United States, insisting that the cost of taxing imported goods is absorbed by the foreign country that produces those goods.
Mainstream economists say this would amount to a tax on American consumers that would make the economy less efficient and increase inflation in the United States.
The Biden-Harris administration has not lifted tariffs imposed on China during the Trump administration and also imposed high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment in May.
The IMF will release its international view of the global economy on Tuesday morning, including updated statistics on US economic growth.
