(Mar 20) -- Finance ministers from the world's largest economies struggled to block the U.S. president's push to erect trade barriers that many warned threaten to undermine the broadest global expansion since 2010. Policy makers from the Group of 20 finished talks in Buenos Aires with little to show for their efforts to convince Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to pare back protectionist steps, including new metal tariffs. Rather, the U.S. ended up co-opting allies, many of whom lobbied for exemptions at the gathering. After two days of talks, the G20 removed from the final statement language it previously used to fight protectionism and inward-looking policies. And for the first time, the G20 highlighted the rising risk of cryptocurrencies.
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