Devex consults Eric LeCompte on the G7's first meeting and its global agenda after Joe Biden became the U.S. president. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.

In Brief: US urges G-7 to 'go big' on COVID-19 response

By Adva Saldinger

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who participated in the meeting, said that “the time to go big is now” and that the G-7, with international financial institutions, “must work to address the challenges facing low-income countries who are struggling to respond to the pandemic,” according to a Treasury Department statement.

The agenda also included discussion of global debt problems, vaccine distribution for low-income countries, and Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, according to Eric LeCompte, executive director at Jubilee USA.

While no decisions about SDRs were made at Friday’s meeting — or even expected — the discussion will likely continue at a meeting later this month of the G-20 group of leading nations. The G-20 would ultimately include the liquidity-boosting move in an official communiqué if there is agreement, but LeCompte said it isn’t likely to come at this next meeting.

Read the full article here.