19 April 2012
Improving global trade conditions for lower-income countries is critical to stimulating the recovery of the global economy, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said ahead of a G20 ministerial meeting in Mexico on Thursday.
Davies, who arrived in Mexico on Wednesday, said the G20 should tackle the growing threat of protectionism to ensure that lower-income countries could participate in global trade on fairer terms.
“Participation of low-income countries in global trade is crucial for their growth and poverty reduction endeavours,” Davies said. “The G20 should foster concrete trade capacity measures to strengthen integration of regional markets and market access, and the availability of trade finance in developing countries.”
BRICS ministers sceptical
The G20 Trade Ministerial Meeting takes place in Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta on Thursday and Friday.
At the BRICS Summit in India in March, the trade ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa expressed disappointed about the G20 meeting’s agenda.
They argued that it appeared to undermine the independence and multilateral character of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by asking trade ministers to agree on the creation of a super-body headed by the chiefs of OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries and the WTO to oversee all the review and monitoring functions of global trade.
World Investment Forum 2012
Following the G20 meeting, Davies will head to Qatar, where he will attend the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development organised World Investment Forum (WIF) 2012, taking place from 20 to 23 April.
WIF 2012 will focus on the changing patterns of foreign investment in the post-crisis global economy, including investment in low-carbon growth and technologies.
“It will also address investment-related challenges and opportunities arising from emerging global economic governance structures, and contribute to developing partnership and policy options for promoting sustainable investment,” said departmental spokesperson Sidwell Medupi.
While in Qatar, Davies will co-chair a ministerial round table on policy challenges for investment and enterprise development with his Qatari counterpart, Mohamed Bin Saleh Al-Sada.
Source: BuaNews
