Leaders of the Group of 20 have agreed to fix the world trading system — but only 19 of them will support the Paris accord on fighting climate change.
Applause rose up in the hall on Saturday as the leaders signed off on a final statement at the end of a two-day summit.
The statement acknowledges flaws in the world trading system and calls for reforming the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – but does not mention protectionism 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 all-night talks by diplomats.
The US had been the main holdout on nearly every issue, officials previously said, as US President Donald Trump has criticised the WTO and taken aggressive trade policies targeting China and the EU.
"As members of the #G20, we have tried to push for a global governance that is fairer, more prosperous and more inclusive" Pedro Sánchez, Spanish Prime Minister.
— G20 Argentina 🇦🇷 (@g20org) December 1, 2018
China also pushed back in talks on steel, South Africa objected to language on trade, Australia did not want the statement to be too soft on migration and Turkey worried it would push too far on climate change, according to the officials.
According to European officials, the US negotiator said too much talk about migration would have been a “deal-breaker” for Mr Trump.
This led to them coming up with “minimalist” language that acknowledges growing migrant flows and the importance of shared efforts to support refugees and solve the problems that drive them to flee.
The statement also shows a commitment to a “rules-based international order,” despite Mr Trump’s rejection of many of those rules.
“There were moments when we thought all was lost,” one European official said, “moments when we spent two hours on one sentence.”
Perhaps surprisingly, one country seen as particularly constructive was Russia, the officials added.
Despite tensions over its military actions on Ukraine and political interference abroad, Russia supports international efforts on trade and climate.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Russian President Vladimir Putin (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
While a statement is not legally enforceable, the Europeans see it as proof the G20 is still relevant and multilateralism still works.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “Everyone agrees that the WTO should be reformed. This is an important agreement.”
“We will send a clear signal — in any case, most of us” — for the success of global climate talks starting in Poland on Sunday, Ms Merkel added.
Her spokesman said that during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, she also voiced concern about rising tensions in the Kerch Strait off Crimea and pushed for “freedom of shipping into the Sea of Azov”.
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, and spokesman Steffen Seibert said Ms Merkel and Mr Putin agreed the four countries should hold further talks at the “adviser level”.
US President Donald Trump listens to Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Ms Merkel also said she hopes a meeting between the US and Chinese leaders will help resolve trade tensions between the two countries.
Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet on the sidelines of the summit in Buenos Aires.
Ms Merkel told reporters it is important 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”.
The divisions among the world’s leading economies were evident from the moment Argentina’s president opened the summit Friday with a call for international cooperation to solve the planet’s problems.
In closing remarks, summit host and Argentine President Mauricio Macri said the countries had overcome “a number of challenges” to reach the agreement.
He said: “We have agreed on a statement that reflects the necessity of revitalising trade, of revitalising the WTO.
“We ratify the concern of everyone over climate change.”
The next G20 summit is to be held in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here