‘Other’ issues blight the G20
SUMMIT SEEMS TO HAVE LOST CLARITY Overshadowed by Brexit and Russia-Ukraine, US-China and Turkey-Saudi tensions.
Ambitiously branded “the premier forum for international economic cooperation”, the G20 leaders’ annual summit, held this year in Buenos Aires, seems to have lost much of its clarity and promise.
The objectives of the “Group of 20” – finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries and the European Union – are to develop global policies to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
This year’s summit, focused on fair and sustainable development, was overshadowed by issues like Brexit and the Russia-Ukraine incident, as well as the US-China trade war and Turkey-Saudi Arabia tensions.
It took 1½ days of difficult negotiations before the world leaders managed to agree on a joint statement.
It promotes “dialogue and the reach for common ground”, and contains references to various road maps, special initiatives and policy statements. It reads like a Christmas wish list.
A notable absentee was its promised resistance to trade protectionism, omitted at the insistence of the US. That removes the level playing field and has dire consequences for the future of world trade.
US president Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping agreed on a truce. China is the largest commodities consumer and any fallout between the two countries would have severe consequences.
Many more topics were discussed and debated, including the future of work, development infrastructure, a sustainable food future and a gender mainstreaming strategy.
The G20 reaffirmed its pledge to strive towards balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth; to a monetary policy supporting economic activity and price stability and to “improving” a rules- based international order.
Promises were made to take action to eradicate child labour, forced labour, human trafficking and modern slavery; to promote gender equality, equal access to education and digitalisation and to attract private capital to invest in infrastructure development.
Climate change – a global challenge needing to be addressed urgently – was another notable omission from the joint statement.