BRASILIA: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed yesterday that the G-20 leading economies back a $100 billion expansion of trade finance to reverse a slowdown in global trade and, with his Brazilian counterpart, urged the completion of global trade talks.
“I’m going to ask the G-20 summit next week to support a global expansion of trade finance to reverse a slide in world trade,” he told a news conference after meeting Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula and Brown also said countries should adopt more fiscal and monetary stimulus to help combat the global economic crisis and called for tougher financial market regulations. A shortage of trade financing has contributed to a sharp drop in global trade that is exacerbating the economic crisis.
Leading industrial and developing nations, including Brazil, will attend the G-20 summit Brown hosts in London on April 2.
“If the G-20 becomes a meeting just to set another meeting, we’ll be discredited and the crisis can deepen,” Lula said during a joint press conference with Brown.
