Shanghai: The world’s top 20 economies will work to boost sluggish global trade despite growing protectionism, overcapacity concerns, and uncertainty over Brexit, G20 trade ministers said yesterday at a meeting in Shanghai.
“The global recovery continues, but it remains uneven and falls short of our ambition for strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Downside risks and vulnerabilities persist,” the trade ministers said in a joint statement, adding that trade should remain “an important engine” to spur global growth.
The G20 nations, which account for 85 percent of global trade, admitted that protectionism has been rising since the financial crisis, and said that new trade restrictions in the group had reached the highest monthly average registered since the WTO began monitoring in 2009.
“We note with concern that despite the G20’s repeated pledge, the stock of restrictive measure affecting trade in goods and services has continued to rise,” they said in the statement.AFP
