IMF members set aside trade split as French vote rattles nerves

Washington

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund members on Saturday dropped a pledge to fight protectionism amid a split over trade policy and turned their attention to another looming threat to global economic integration: The first round of France's presidential election.

Concerns that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and far-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both critics of the European Union, could top the field in Sunday's vote added to nervousness over US trade policy at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings.