As global finance chiefs return from their first collectiveengagement with the Trump administration, they're bringing home aload of unfinished business.

While the weekend meeting of the Group of 20 in the German spatown of Baden-Baden kept up its tradition of a communique topresent a veneer of agreement, it only did so by papering over newcracks in the order underpinning the world economy. Barelyhinting at the merits of free trade, the statement's omissions showhow global economic diplomacy is now beset with a fault line thatcould overshadow it for months, if not years.

As recently as last July, the G-20 had promised to “resist allforms of protectionism,” a pledge now absent as the previousconsensus on commerce is challenged by the recent election of U.S.President Donald Trump. Before he and the rest of the group'sleaders meet in Hamburg in July, his counterparts have little morethan 100 days to gauge if the removal of those words represents thebeginning or the end of his administration's attempt to resetglobal terms of trade that it abhors as economically unfair.