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Speaking on Friday on the sidelines of the gathering of finance
ministers and central bank governors in Bari, the official said
there was a consensus not to veer from the message delivered by
the G20 in Baden Baden two months ago.
At that meeting, ministers dropped their traditional pledge to
keep global free trade open, bowing to an increasingly
protectionist United States, and said only that they were
"working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our
economies."
The decision to use the same wording in Bari suggests the United
States' partners have made little progress in convincing
President Donald Trump to commit to a multilateral approach to
trade that he has threatened to abandon.
Trump has already pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and wants to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA).
The official, who asked not to be named or quoted directly,
helped prepare the agenda for the Bari meeting.
She said at a briefing in Rome on Monday that trade would not be
on the official agenda but did not say then whether it would
feature in the final statement.
The section on foreign exchange policy used by the G20 in its
closing statement in Baden Baden read as follows:
"We reiterate that excess volatility and disorderly movements in
exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and
financial stability. We will consult closely on exchange
markets. We reaffirm our previous exchange rate commitments,
including that we will refrain from competitive devaluations and
we will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes."
Asked if the G7 in Bari was likely to discuss climate change,
another area in which Trump's approach has caused concern among
the United States' partners, the official said the issue was not
among the meeting's objectives or priorities.
(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi)
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