The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected at the opening of the annual ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that will be held in Paris on Wednesday 30 and Thursday 31 May to renew his support for multilateralism and unveil his ideas on how to achieve it.
France will be chairing the OECD ministerial meeting on the topic of re-building multilateralism with New Zealand and Latvia as deputy chairs.
The meeting will focus on the OECD’s raison d’etre at a time when international cooperation is being put to the test, said OECD secretary general Angel Gurría on Monday 28 May.
We were impressed by Macron’s speech on multilateralism at the US Congress in late April and are waiting for him to reassert these ideas and indicate the role the OECD could take, added Gurría.
The OECD is being challenged by the United States for not managing to reduce overcapacity in steel, mostly from China, although G20 countries instructed it in 2016 to pilot the World Steel Forum to look at this question and find remedies.
Since being sworn in in January 2017, the American President, Donald Trump, has been questioning the OECD’s work, along with other multilateral institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where the US is blocking the renewal process for judges on the appeals panel.
By deciding in March on a unilateral rise in US customs duty on steel and aluminium imports, Donald Trump has been threatening a trade war at global level.
The OECD, to which the US is the main contributor, is on the firing line. At its previous ministerial meeting, in 2017, member countries did not manage to reach agreement on a final declaration, since the United States would not allow it to include a condemnation of protectionism.
The 33 other member countries were forced to publish a second declaration recalling the OECD’s fundamentals but could not get the United States to sign it. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)