The Latest: Mnuchin urges lending shift to poorer countries

WASHINGTON — The Latest on the global finance meetings in Washington (all times local):

11:25 a.m.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (mih-NOO’-shin) is urging the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to pursue reforms that will support Trump administration foreign policy initiatives.

Mnuchin says the World Bank needs to continue to shift its lending from fast-growing developing countries such as China to poorer nations.

He says in a speech prepared for the World Bank’s policy committee that the bank should direct its resources at “poorer borrowers and away from countries better able to finance their own development objectives.”

Mnuchin cites progress in achieving changes at the World Bank that the U.S. put forward last year, but says more needs to be done.

The administration’s America First trade policies put it the U.S. at odds with other countries at this weekend’s global finance meetings in Washington.

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12:50 a.m.

The United States is resisting pressure to back off President Donald Trump’s tough America First trade policy at a meeting of global finance leaders worried about the threat of a damaging trade war.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (mih-NOO’-shin) charged that “unfair global trade practices impede stronger U.S. and global growth, acting as a persistent drag on the global economy.” He urged the International Monetary Fund to do more to combat unfair trade practices.

Mnuchin issued the comments Friday during the spring meetings of the 189-country IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank. The three days of meetings wrap up Saturday.

Other countries have used the gathering to protest Trump’s protectionist trade policies, which mark a reversal of seven decades of U.S. support for ever-freer global commerce.