The men and women who run the global economy will arrive in Washington this week for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank with one goal: get out of town without President Donald Trump noticing them.

These financial institutions, created under U.S. auspices after World War II, symbolize the globalized economy that the president abhors. Where Trump craves unilateral action, the fund and the bank give officials from almost 200 countries a voice. The issues that the global bodies prioritize, such as climate change, he rejects as unimportant.

The world’s central bankers and finance ministers this week are scheduled to discuss the economic implications of public debt, societal aging and artificial intelligence. But perhaps the most important question shadowing the global economy — what will become of Trump’s plan to raise U.S. import taxes to their highest level in more than a century — is not on the official program.

“It’s not a particularly meaty agenda. I think the institutions are deliberately trying to keep a low profile. But obviously one of the major questions that’s going to surface over the course of this week is the U.S. posture vis-à-vis these institutions,” Clemence Landers, vice president of the Center for Global Development, told reporters last week.

In February, the president ordered a review of U.S. support for all international organizations. Trump’s directive cited several United Nations bodies, but its pall extended to the fund and bank. Both organizations also were criticized in “Project 2025,” the Heritage Foundation blueprint for governing that was written by prominent Trump supporters.

The report called for the United States to withdraw from both financial organizations, saying they “espouse economic theories and policies that are inimical to American free market and limited government principles.”

Leaders of both institutions struck a conciliatory tone toward the White House in recent remarks as they considered changes in their operations that might placate the United States.

“We’re having a constructive dialogue with the U.S. administration,” said Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank. “I don’t know where it’ll end. But I’ve got no problem with the dialogue I’m having. They’re asking the right questions and we’re trying to give them the right answers.”

This week’s meetings come as the global economy is virtually being held hostage by the mercurial American president. On April 9, one week after announcing a 10 percent tariff on almost all foreign-made goods plus higher import taxes on dozens of U.S. trading partners, the president hit pause on the most onerous levies, saying he would negotiate them with more than 70 nations.

Trump set a 90-day deadline for results and began preliminary talks with Japan, India and South Korea. Large and small nations alike are eager to persuade Trump to lower tariffs.