[WATCH] Trade fairness dominates G20 talks in Baden Baden

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The world's financial leaders are unlikely to endorse free trade and reject protectionism in their communique on Saturday because they have been unable to find a wording that would suit a more protectionist United States, G20 officials said, according to Reuters.

Bloomberg also reported that negotiations were bogged down on Saturday with the U.S. rejecting the latest German compromise on wording over trade.

“The standoff is over how to deal with trade pledges from previous G-20 meetings, such as a commitment to ‘resist all forms of protectionism’,” Bloomberg reported.

Since Malta is hosting the EU Presidency, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna is in Baden Baden to attend the summit.

Ahead of the meeting, he said that the challenge would be to find common ground amongst the world’s top economies. He called for a “reassessment”.

The new US administration is considering trade measures to curb imports with a border tax and would not agree to repeat the formulations used by previous G20 communiques, clashing with China and Europe.