Taoiseach tells G20 summit to modernise world trade and tackle 'distorting' policies

LAST UPDATE | 20 hrs ago

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has urged G20 leaders to tackle “trade distorting industrial policies” in his address at the summit in Johannesburg.

His address was made to a room full of leaders from major economies around the world – with the notable exception of US President Donald Trump, who has maintained his boycott of the summit.

In Ireland’s first ever appearance at the gathering of the world’s leading economies, Martin said that the World Trade Organisation needed to be “modernised” as part of work reforming international trade.

It appeared to be a move in light of the threat posed by Donald Trump’s wide ranging tariff regime that he has deployed since returning to the White House. 

“The stability and predictability provided by the rules-based multilateral trading system is key in supporting sustainable development,” the Taoiseach told the Nasrec convention centre.

He said that the rules and standards that the WTO provides are “crucial for all of us who depend on global trade”.  

“The WTO must, however, be modernised and must also address the impact of the increasing use of trade distorting industrial policies,” Martin added.

Martin added that there needed to be a renewed effort at ending violent conflict, including Russia’s “illegal invasion of Ukraine”, and the “horrors” witnessed in Gaza.

Earlier, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the G20 summit with a call for “multilateralism” to confront “the threats facing humanity today”.

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“The G20 underscores the value of the relevance of multilateralism,” Ramaphosa said in an opening address at the Nasrec convention centre.

The threats facing humanity today – from escalating geopolitical tensions, global warming, pandemics, energy and food insecurity to inequality, unemployment, extreme poverty and armed conflict – jeopardise our collective future.

The host nation has been locked in an ongoing dispute with the White House.

It’s heightened by a ceremony planned for tomorrow which is supposed to see South Africa hand over the presidency to the US. Next year’s summit will take place in the US.

But the row between the nations has meant it’s up in the air whether the US will have representation at the ceremony.

For its G20 presidency, South Africa has focused on three themes for its aspirations: sustainability, solidarity and equality.

But Trump’s administration has criticised these and other global development aims, bashing some as “anti-American”.

In his address, Ramaphosa appeared to have a veiled pop at Trump this morning, saying that they “should not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature or the impact” of the first G20 summit to take place on African soil.

He called the “disparities” in wealth and development among countries “unjust and unsustainable”, and stated it’s a serious impediment to sustainable growth.

“It is essential that we break down divisions of economic status, gender, race and geography,” Ramaphosa said.

Macron: G20 ‘at risk’

A concerned note was struck by French President Emmanuel Macron, who told fellow leaders that the G20 is “at risk” as it struggles to tackle international crises.

“The G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle,” he told the gathering.

“We are struggling to resolve major crises together around this table,” Macron said, warning: “The G20 is at risk and we are not collectively mobilising towards some priorities.”

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