Brussels, 11/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - Meeting at trade minister level in Shanghai on Sunday 10 July, the G20 countries said they were determined to boost trade to stimulate the global economy, while being concerned at the rise of protectionist barriers among them.
“The global recovery continues, but it remains uneven (…) Trade should remain an important engine to spur global growth”, they said in a press statement.
Accounting for 80% of global trade, the world's 20 biggest economies would like to relaunch global trade, for which the pace of progress has clearly slowed down since the 2008 crisis, staying under 3% a year since 2009 compared with over 7% during the previous two decades.
But the G20 countries are proving it very difficult to translate into action the commitments for free trade that they took collectively - with successive WTO reports showing that trade restrictions have been maintained by its members since 2008 and that new trade restriction measures have continued to be adopted. “We note with concern that despite the G20's repeated pledge, the stock of restrictive measures affecting trade in goods and services has continued to rise”, the G20 stated.
China, which is chairing the club this year, is particularly targeted by other G20 members' restrictive measures - especially through EU and US anti-dumping measures on its exports of cheap steel, which result from its massive overcapacity.
While the issue was addressed in Shanghai, the G20 trade ministers confined themselves to describing the “over capacity” as a world problem requiring collective responses.
China's vice trade minister, Wang Shouwen, told press that the G20 countries “have realised the necessity to take global cooperation to handle the challenges caused by production overcapacity” and that “China's effort in [handling] over capacity have been highly recognised”. “While some other countries are talking about how to cut down production, Chinese government has already taken measures which have been effective”, he said.
On Sunday, China also came across as proactively supporting free trade, as it instigated a call from the G20 countries to accelerate ratification of the WTO trade facilitation agreement (TFA) - the package on simplifying and easing customs procedures for SMEs that was adopted at the WTO ministerial conference in Bali in 2013, and that some G20 members (including Argentina, Canada and Indonesia) have still not ratified. The TFA needs ratification by two thirds of WTO members in order to enter into force.
In addition, the UK's decision to leave the EU (Brexit) was not mentioned in the G20 statement. London will now have to renegotiate new trade agreements with the EU and the 58 countries linked to the European trade bloc by free trade agreements, and this was also discussed at the G20 meeting. Wang recognised that “Britain leaving the European Union will definitely have some impact on global trade, especially short-term investment”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)