The Trump administration has reached an initial trade deal with one G7 member, the United Kingdom, and is engaged in talks with Japan and the European Union. But Canada still faces 25% duties on many of its exports to the United States, including autos, and the other three G7 members — France, Germany, and Italy — all face a baseline tariff of 10% on all their exports as part of the European Union.

It will be the first formal meeting of the G7 attended by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who participated in a brief G7 gathering last month on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will also attend along with central bank governors from the other G7 nations.

“The message from colleagues is pretty clear is that a free and fair and a rules-based multilateral trading system, is a system in which we all win,” Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of finance, said Tuesday.

While many finance ministers gathered in Banff this week will likely seek one-on-one meetings with Bessent, it’s unlikely any trade deals will be reached, according to a person briefed on preparations for the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have authorization to speak about it publicly.

Instead, the finance officials will seek to smooth the way toward any agreements before a meeting of the heads of state of the G7 countries in June in nearby Kananaskis, Canada.

Bessent may be able to bring a more conciliatory tone to the meetings, Prasad said, as he is often seen as a relatively moderating influence on tariffs in the Trump White House.

And there will likely be some areas of agreement, particularly around the Trump administration’s goal to address what it calls “global imbalances” in world trade, a reference to the United States’ large annual trade deficits, which reflects that it imports more than it exports. The White House sees China as the key driver of such imbalances. China has a large trade surplus.

“Intentional policy choices by other countries have hollowed out America’s manufacturing sector and undermined our critical supply chains, putting our national and economic security at risk,” Bessent said in a speech last month during the IMF and World Bank meetings.

The status of the U.S. dollar may also come up, at least in informal conversations. The dollar dropped in value unexpectedly last month after Trump unveiled his widespread tariffs, while the interest rate on Treasury bonds rose, a sign international investors may have been dumping American assets as confidence in the country’s governance and economy eroded.

“In the hallways, they’re going to talk about nothing but tariffs and the dollar,” said Steven Kamin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former senior economist at the Federal Reserve.

At last year’s meeting of G7 finance officials in Stresa, Italy, they agreed on a joint statement that said the members have a “strong commitment to a free, fair, and rules-based” trading system. It’s not yet clear whether they will be able to agree on such a statement this year.

Another question hanging over the meetings will be whether the G7 can come to agreement on a new round of sanctions on Russia. The European Union and U.K. announced sanctions on Russian oil Tuesday, targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” of unregistered oil tankers that are shipping its oil and allowing it to fund its war with Ukraine.

Proposals to lower a price cap on Russian oil, set as part of earlier rounds of international sanctions, down from its current level of $60 may also be discussed in meetings Wednesday.

Yet the Trump administration, while it has called for greater sanctions on Russian oil, hasn’t yet signed on to the new restrictions. Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, and said the two countries would soon begin ceasefire talks, though no details were available.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko will also attend the G7 meetings this week, though Ukraine is not a member.

Daleep Singh, chief global economist at PGIM Fixed Income and a former deputy national security adviser in the Biden administration, said the issue of Russian oil sanctions will be a key test of what unity remains in the G7.

“If you’re looking for something to engender a just and lasting peace, oil sanctions are the place to look,” he said.

WEST ORANGE, N.J., May 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Board of Directors of Bel Fuse Inc. (Nasdaq: BELFA and BELFB) (“Bel” or the “Company”) today announced the appointment of Lynn Hutkin as Bel’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective immediately following Bel’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held May 27, 2025. She will be responsible for Bel’s financial strategies and will lead the global finance organization, including planning, treasury, tax, reporting and investor relations. In her new role Ms. Hutkin is succeeding Farouq Tuweiq, Bel’s current CFO, who as previously announced will vacate his CFO role immediately following Bel’s 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held May 27, 2025, upon Mr. Tuweiq’s assumption of the President and CEO role on that same date.

Ms. Hutkin joined Bel in 2007 and has held roles with increasing responsibilities, most recently serving in the role of Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations along with her designation as Principal Accounting Officer for Bel, which she will continue in her new role (together with her newly added designation as Principal Financial Officer). In addition to her primary roles, throughout her tenure at Bel, she has also been a leader in a variety of other areas including mergers and acquisitions, bank financing, corporate insurance and employee benefit programs. Ms. Hutkin started her career at Arthur Andersen within the audit group and subsequently held roles of increasing responsibility within finance at companies ranging from an IT consulting start-up to a $250 million publicly-traded courier company prior to joining Bel. Ms. Hutkin earned her B.S. of Accountancy from Bentley University and is an active CPA in the State of New Jersey.

“I am excited to continue working with Lynn and to build upon the accomplishments we have achieved since we began working together in 2021,” said Farouq Tuweiq, Bel’s current CFO. “Bel has gone through a number of transformational steps over the past four years and Lynn has been integral in strengthening best practices at Bel and enhancing financial discipline, financial reporting and internal procedures and controls throughout the organization.”

“I’m beyond honored to step into the CFO role and very excited for the new journey ahead,” said Lynn Hutkin. “I look forward to the continued partnership with Farouq and our talented team in attaining our future goals.”

About Bel
Bel (www.belfuse.com) designs, manufactures and markets a broad array of products that power, protect and connect electronic circuits. These products are primarily used in the defense, commercial aerospace, networking, telecommunications, computing, general industrial, high-speed data transmission, transportation and eMobility industries. Bel’s portfolio of products also finds application in the automotive, medical, broadcasting and consumer electronics markets. Bel’s product groups include Power Solutions and Protection (front-end, board-mount, industrial and transportation power products, module products and circuit protection), Connectivity Solutions (expanded beam fiber optic, copper-based, RF and RJ connectors and cable assemblies), and Magnetic Solutions (integrated connector modules, power transformers, power inductors and discrete components). The Company operates facilities around the world.

00:00 Speaker A

Home Depot set to report its latest quarterly earnings before the bell on Tuesday. Yahoo! Finance’s Brooke Palmer here with what to expect from the home improvement retailer. So what do we got?

00:08 Brooke Palmer

Well, Wall Street expects it’s going to be a slow start to the year for Home Depot, most certainly, and that’s really as two key points really weigh on consumers. That uncertainty around tariffs, and also those elevated home prices, elevated mortgage rates have really continued to create challenges around the housing market, and that’s expected to have weighed on Home Depot’s first quarter, certainly as potential buyers were spooked off by those higher prices. If we take a closer look at what Wall Street expects here, they still do expect revenue to grow year-over-year roughly 8% to $39.29 billion. Adjusted earnings are expected to decline year-over-year to $3.59. Now, one key area here that all Wall Street has watching is that same-store sales growth number. For eight straight quarters, we saw negative sales growth for Home Depot, and in the Q4, that number turned around. Now, more bad news is expected on the same-store sales growth front. Wall Street does expect that it did fall during this quarter down 0.2%, but experts tell me that Home Depot should be a key winner in the long term here. They say that they have this pro business that makes up about half of their customer base. We know that they recently acquired SRS distribution, that’s professional business segment for roughly $18.25 billion last summer. So Wall Street optimistic that that pro business will certainly turn the tide here.

02:06 Speaker A

And what does Walmart’s recent warning, what does that mean for Home Depot, potentially?

02:12 Brooke Palmer

Right, well, two key things here is that they warned that tariffs would create higher prices. Some experts telling me that they that may have opened up the floodgates here in order for others to say, we too have to raise prices because of tariffs. In addition to that, we also know that Walmart loves to tout that they make a majority of their goods here in the U.S. Home Depot, a similar notion. They said a majority of their goods that we sell are produced in the U.S. Both Walmart and Home Depot, they both have some exposure to China here. And so really, you sort of relating those two. They might have to raise higher prices. We also know that Walmart reiterated their guidance. Could we hear similar for not just from Home Depot, but Lowe’s reporting the following day and, of course, Target after that. And so Walmart perhaps might have set a precedent here on what these next earnings will look like.

03:11 Speaker A

All right, we’ll wait and see. Brooke, thank you. Appreciate it.