Uncle Sam’s chair sits empty

Bloomberg TV's Europe correspondent Oliver Crook was in South Africa last week as many of the world's finance ministers gathered there for talks. One big name was missing: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. That's notable amid the countdown to Trump's Aug. 1 tariff deadline. Plus: Read about the threat Elon Musk poses to his own companies, and take a tour of the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

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The Group of 20 came into being in 1999, as a forum intended to shore up the biggest developed and developing economies in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. For a couple of decades it worked pretty well, though the meetings sometimes had the feel of a Thanksgiving dinner with relatives you don't necessarily have a lot in common with. There was some love, but plenty of underlying tensions and simmering feuds among the countries, which account for 85% of global gross domestic product and two-thirds of the world population. As the biggest of the bunch, the US traditionally carved the bird, poured the wine and held forth from its (figurative) position at the head of the table. Even if you didn't particularly get along with Uncle Sam, he did command respect and tended to keep the conversation on track.

Which is why it's pretty awkward when top American officials don't bother to attend the party. The G-20 meeting of finance ministers, held last week outside Durban, South Africa, marks the second such event Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has skipped. Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn't make it to the G-20 foreign minister's meeting in February. And it's an open question whether President Donald Trump will show up at the Johannesburg conclave in November.

Trump's trade wars overshadowed the meeting of the G-20 finance ministers. Photographer: Kyodo News/Getty Images

If the gathering of the G-7 leaders in Canada last month felt a little more like the G-6-and-a-half when Trump decamped a day early, then the G-20 in Durban might be closer to G-19-and-a-quarter, with the US Treasury represented by the acting undersecretary for international affairs. The boycott isn't just of the G-20 framework, but also of the host nation—foreshadowed in a fiery Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May. And the inclusive, ESG-esque theme of the meeting can't have gone over too well with the Americans either. The slogan for South Africa's leadership of the G-20 this year is "Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability."

Much of the conversation was overshadowed by Trump's trade wars, and I spent most of my time asking finance ministers where their various tariff negotiations stand. Almost everyone put on a brave face, but they increasingly had to admit that things aren't looking too good. As with all fraught family gatherings, much of the intrigue lies in what goes unsaid (at least when the cameras are rolling). A sideline meeting between representatives of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and South Korea focused on trade.

One minister told me they detect a softening from the US on negotiations, potentially because of the difficulty the White House has in taking on so many trade wars at once. Although no one wants to say it out loud (for fear of upsetting Trump and derailing negotiations) another minister told me they think that no matter what happens by the Aug. 1 deadline, the matter is unlikely to be permanently closed. They say that over time it might be necessary to build larger coalitions to deal more confrontationally with the administration.

It wasn't just trade, though, casting a Trump-shaped shadow over the proceedings. The president's tiff with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reached a fever pitch moments before I sat down with Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian finance minister and former NATO secretary general. Reports about the Fed chair's possible firing whipsawed the currency markets (including Norway's krone), and Stoltenberg said the kerfuffle was adding yet another dimension of risk for global financial stability.

The message from everyone I spoke with was clear: If the Americans are no longer interested in an open global trading system, the party will go on without them. And indeed, Trump's presidency is beginning to alter some of the awkward family dynamic. Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, South Africa's refusal to take sides has irked the European Union. But much of that has been swept under the carpet, and these days you hear much more about potential economic cooperation.

At the end of the day, the G-20 still managed a communique—an attempt to breathe life and momentum into a format that feels a little adrift without the US. But more than anything, the meeting on the Indian Ocean felt like a first attempt to answer the question: What happens to the multilateral global order in the age of making America great?

Related: EU and US negotiators are heading into another week of intensive trade talks, before 30% tariffs are scheduled to hit on Aug. 1.

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Consider the Zipper Supply Chain

Photographer: 731; Artwork: Andi Schultz Burnett for Bloomberg Businessweek

In early February, executives from YKK, the world's largest zipper manufacturer, gathered in Kurobe, Japan, for annual budget meetings. Normally, these gatherings leave time for a bit of schmoozing—karaoke, dinner with old friends, that sort of thing. This year was less freewheeling as it became clear the meetings were an informal referendum on whether global trade was about to come undone. Scarcely two weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump had already announced 25% tariffs on goods entering the US from Colombia, only to rescind the measure. Next came tariffs amounting to 20% on goods from China, 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico, and 25% on all imported steel, aluminum and automobiles. Canada and Mexico got a one-month reprieve; the rest were set to go into effect.

Blizzard conditions made YKK's Kurobe campus look as if it were nested inside a freshly shaken snow globe. Situated on the opposite stretch of coastline from Tokyo, where YKK has its world headquarters, Kurobe remains the beating heart of the company: It's home to a secretive research and development facility, along with one of the more than 500 YKK factories around the world, which bind countless supply chains. The billions of zippers YKK makes each year are used by iconic brands such as Levi's and Adidas; fast-fashion giants like H&M, Zara and Shein; and gorpcore pioneers Patagonia, the North Face and Arc'teryx, along with niche competitors like Swedish outfitter Klättermusen. YKK supplies roughly 40% of the global apparel industry, and besides that, it makes zippers for purses, luggage, sleeping bags, tents and many other types of equipment and accessories. That's just the zippers. The company has spent decades developing anything that might qualify as a fastener (the original English word for "zipper," and the one still used in Japanese). Automakers use YKK's Velcro-like hook-and-loop system to keep upholstery attached to car seats. Makers of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines use a similar YKK product to keep their devices' breathing apparatus in place while sleep apnea sufferers toss and turn in the night. A snap-on YKK "medical stud" connects electrodes to the electrocardiography machines that monitor a patient's heartbeat in hospital rooms whose window fittings and sliding door mechanisms are also made, more often than not, by YKK.

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