Speaking to world financial leaders, Yellen said isolationism had “made America and the world worse off.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tells world financial leaders the US economy is stronger because the Biden administration has rejected isolationism, offering thinly veiled criticism of former President Donald Trump’s policies two weeks earlier US elections.

Yellen opened Annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Tuesday, highlighting economic growth in the United States as the country finds itself in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without mentioning Trump by name, she said in a preview of her speech that the Biden administration had ended a period of international isolationism that had “made America and the world worse off.”

“We went from millions of people losing their jobs to a historic recovery in the labor market,” Yellen says. She said U.S. economic growth was “nearly twice as fast as most other developed countries this year and last, even as inflation fell earlier.”

The meetings mark the last major international financial meeting held under the Biden administration and come as economic issues are a top concern for American voters. Republicans blamed the Biden-Harris administration for inflation, which reached a 40-year high and then fell. Trump said at a September debate that the administration had “ruined the economy.”

Voters remain divided on whether they prefer the Republican candidate. Trump, or Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris to address key economic challenges, according to an October survey conducted The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Whoever wins the US election will also have a huge impact on global finance and the global economy.

Trump and Harris have said little about their plans for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But they have different views on trade, tariffs and other economic issues. Trump is skeptical of global financial institutions and promises high tariffs if elected. Harris is likely to continue the Biden administration’s approach of prioritizing international cooperation over threats, although she has supported some tariffs.

Yellen, like other federal officials, is prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity under the Hatch Act. But in her speech, she effectively promotes a potential Harris administration, praising Biden-Harris initiatives on climate, health care, infrastructure spending and other areas.

She referenced Trump’s international leadership, saying, “From day one, we have rejected the isolationism that has left America and the world worse off and strived for global economic leadership that supports economies around the world and delivers significant benefits to the American people and the U.S. economy.”

Trump, who is an isolationist and critic of multilateral institutions, promises to introduce 60% duty on all Chinese goods and a “universal” tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else imported into the United States, insisting that the cost of taxing imported goods is borne by the foreign countries that produce those goods.

Leading economists say it would amount to a tax on American consumers that make the economy less efficient and cause a sharp rise in inflation in the United States.

The Biden-Harris administration has not reversed the tariffs imposed on China under the Trump administration or in May. introduced basic tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment.

The IMF will publish its international forecast for the global economy, which includes updated US economic growth statistics, on Tuesday morning.