The G20 leaders' declaration, the result of intense negotiations, which met in Buenos Aires on 30 November and 1 December, confirms the need to reform the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
In the declaration, the same goes for the trade aspect as the rest: the European Union has implemented what it knows best, namely to facilitate the identification of the lowest common denominator between sometimes antagonistic players. The final compromise, if not ambitious, identifies concrete meeting points between the positions of the twenty major world economies.
The reference to protectionism, although included in previous statements, will not have found its way back into the text, as the United States formally opposes it.
Leaders are therefore content to "note current trade issues", while avoiding tabling them (see EUROPE 12150). But the United States, on the other hand, has given way on the reference to a "rules-based international order". Recognising the "contribution that the multilateral trading system has made" to growth and development, the Twenty "support the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning" and undertake to review this reform at the next summit, at the end of June in Osaka, Japan.
In a long-awaited bilateral meeting on Saturday, 1 December, the Chinese and American presidents also reached a truce to stop the escalation of trade sanctions between the two countries. President Xi Jinping has pledged to increase Chinese purchases of US products in order to somewhat rebalance the large deficit in the US trade balance with China.
In the financial sector, the G20 calls for a "full and timely" implementation of reform of the financial system. In particular, it undertakes to regulate cryptocurrencies for the purpose of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.
As a supporter of a "fair, sustainable and modern" international tax system, he promises to continue work on a "consensual" solution to address the impact of digitisation on the international tax system. On this point, a progress report will be made in 2019 before a final report, expected in 2020.
Climate. As in Hamburg in June 2017 (see EUROPE 11826), nineteen leaders reaffirm their commitment to "fully implement" the Paris Climate Agreement, calling it "irreversible".
The United States reiterates its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement by referring only to the use of all available energy sources "while protecting the environment".
On the migration challenge, the world's twenty largest powers consider massive refugee movements to be "a global concern with economic, social, political and humanitarian consequences". They highlight the importance of shared actions to address the root causes of these movements of people.
There is no explicit reference to the Global Compact for Migration, which is to be endorsed in Marrakech in December. In addition to the United States and Australia, several European countries refuse to sign a non-binding text reaffirming certain principles and intended to promote international cooperation in this field based on good practice (see EUROPE 12149).
In 2019, the G20 summit will be held in Osaka, Japan, and in 2020, in Saudi Arabia.
See the Buenos Aires Summit Declaration: https://bit.ly/2E95YuR (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel and Mathieu Bion)