Milwaukee, Oct 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) G20 trade ministers have unanimously condemned the weaponisation of food for political or economic coercion, securing a rare consensus at a meeting that otherwise exposed differences among the world’s largest economies over forced labour, industrial overcapacity and the future of global trade rules.
The agreement was reached at the two-day G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee under the US presidency. Ministers defined weaponisation as targeted government actions to slow, stop, block or direct trade in food, agricultural products or inputs to extract unrelated geopolitical concessions.
“After constructive discussions, the G20 Trade Ministers agreed to condemn food weaponization as it poses a significant humanitarian and economic threat,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.
“For decades, trade in food, agricultural products, and agricultural inputs has been weaponized to exert coercive pressure for economic or political reasons,” he said. “This threatens livelihoods in targeted countries, distorts competition, and erodes trust in the global trading system.”
The consensus statement said coercive actions could disrupt agricultural and food supply chains, threaten food security, particularly for vulnerable populations, and damage producers’ livelihoods.
Significantly, ministers drew a distinction between coercive trade actions and legitimate domestic measures. The agreement said its concerns did not apply to measures adopted transparently in accordance with relevant international rules and norms and designed to advance legitimate domestic policy objectives, including food security.
The distinction was one of the central issues in the Milwaukee discussions.
While ministers found common ground on food, they failed to reach consensus on eliminating forced labour from global supply chains.
The United States, Mexico and Argentina instead issued a separate statement calling for stronger action against goods produced with forced labour.
“I applaud my colleagues from Mexico and Argentina for siding with moral and economic reality and recognizing the continued existence of forced labor as an abhorrent human rights issue that distorts global supply chains,” Greer said.
Their statement cited an International Labour Organization estimate that 28 million people were in forced labour globally in 2021, an increase of about 10 per cent over the previous five years. It called on countries to strengthen cooperation and measures against imports produced wholly or partly through forced labour.
The three countries also encouraged World Trade Organization members to use WTO bodies to exchange information about imports and supply chains at risk of involving forced labour.
The chair’s statement said the proposal was supported by all but “a handful” of members, with some rejecting a pathway towards collective action.
Ministers also opened a potentially consequential debate over reforming the WTO’s Most-Favoured Nation principle. Many members described MFN as a cornerstone of the multilateral trading system, while an increasing number indicated there was merit in examining how the principle operates and could be improved.
Among ideas discussed were targeted changes to MFN, broader exceptions, new legal interpretations of existing exceptions and “closed” plurilateral agreements under which benefits would accrue only to participating countries undertaking stronger commitments.
The Milwaukee ministerial was held on Sept 30 and Oct 1 as part of the US G20 presidency. Its four principal trade discussions covered food weaponisation, forced labour, structural excess capacity and reform of the MFN principle.
The chair’s statement said the discussions marked the beginning of further deliberations over MFN reform. The United States will hand the G20 presidency to the United Kingdom in 2027.
Source: IANS
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