G20 trade chiefs denounce food-trade coercion but fail to agree on overcapacity and forced labour

G20 trade ministers agreed on Thursday to denounce the weaponisation of food through coercive trade actions, but failed to reach consensus on statements denouncing forced labour in supply chains and on addressing structural excess industrial capacity, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said after their meeting in Milwaukee.

Mr. Greer told a news conference that many of the ministers had expressed concerns about excess industrial capacity, particularly in China, that is flooding their markets with cheap exports. "Nearly all countries agree that this is an issue that requires action, and nearly all countries agree that our current system of trade remedies or responses is inadequate to solve this problem," he said — which, he added, is why the United States has taken unilateral tariff action to protect its industries.

China had objected to a similar G20 statement denouncing forced labour and non-market economic policies at a finance leaders' meeting a month ago in Asheville, North Carolina, Mr. Greer said.

The ministers also discussed a US proposal for sweeping reform of the Most Favoured Nation system of published, unconditional tariff rates that has underpinned global trade since the end of World War Two. Mr. Greer described it as a new topic for the G20 — past discussions on MFN tariffs have taken place within the World Trade Organisation — and said the US had not proposed a joint statement on it because it was a longer-term conversation that was important to start.

"In the United States, we will continue to have discussions on this topic with like-minded trading partners well beyond Milwaukee," he said.