Leaders agree on trade, not climate
Group of 20 calls for improving the world trading system
BUENOS AIRES: Leaders of the Group of 20 have agreed to fix the world trading system - but only 19 of them agreed to support the Paris accord on fighting climate change.
Applause rose up in the hall on Saturday as the leaders, including US President Donald Trump, signed off on a final statement at the end of a twoday summit.
The statement acknowledges flaws in the world trading system and calls for reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). It doesn’t mention protectionism however, because negotiators said the US had resisted that.
The statement says 19 of the members reiterated their commitment to the Paris climate accord, but the US reiterates its decision to withdraw.
The non-binding agreement was reached after difficult allnight talks by diplomats.
Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped a meeting between the US and Chinese leaders would help resolve trade tensions between the two countries.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were due to meet later on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit in Buenos Aires.
Merkel told reporters it’s important that the talks “hopefully bring solutions, because all of us see that we are affected indirectly when Chinese-American economic relations are not as frictionless as a world order requires”.
Merkel said she expects the G-20 summit’s communique to include a reference to “multilaterism” - “it has to be fought for, but we are doing that”.
She added that the participants agree reform of the WTO is needed, and said she would send a clear signal for the success of global climate talks starting in Poland on Sunday.
Merkel’s spokesman said the German leader has voiced her concern about rising tensions in the Kerch Strait off Crimea and pushed for “freedom of shipping into the Sea of Azov” at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Merkel met Putin early on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit. Spokesman Steffen Seibert said their talks centred on Syria and the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Last weekend, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews in an incident escalating a tug-of-war that began in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and supported separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Germany and France have sought to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.
Seibert said Merkel and Putin agreed that the four countries should hold further talks at “adviser level”.
European diplomats said allnight talks have resulted in a possible “breakthrough” on fixing the global trading system.
Despite deep divisions going into the summit and resistance from the US, European Union officials said on Saturday that the countries would commit to reforming problems with the WTO.