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Convergence is likely on all five trade and investment issues being discussed at the G20 when Trade Ministers meet in Jaipur on Thursday despite continued rift between Russia and the Western economies over the war in Ukraine, Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The five issues where there is a possibility of consensus include MSME integration in global trade, trade for growth and prosperity, resilient trade and global value chain, logistics for trade, and WTO reform.
Ukraine crisis
“All countries have shown a spirit of accommodation on the main issues. But there are some realities (like the Russia-Ukraine conflict). It is not possible to have a consensus on that. Because it is a reality, a situation. Leaving that, on all other issues we are focussed on building a consensus,” Goyal said replying to a question on concerns over the Russia-Ukraine conflict at a press briefing on Wednesday. The two-day G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial meeting will begin in Jaipur on Thursday and officials from all member countries are, at the moment, working on arriving at a consensus.
“We have been able to come up with significant consensus among member countries invoking a Jaipur call for action. It will help promote industry, the MSME sector, upgrade the global trade helpdesk and breach information gaps for MSMEs to help them expand business and trade,” Goyal said.
Key G20 meetings, including one of Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors in Gandhinagar last month and the Foreign Ministers meeting in Delhi in March, failed to come out with joint communiques because of the differences between the Western countries and Russia over the Ukraine war.
The US’ mood on the matter continues to be solemn. A White House statement issued on Tuesday on US President Joe Biden’s visit to India for the G20 Summit from September 7-10 pointed out that one of the issues to be discussed by him would be mitigating the economic and social impacts of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Bilateral ties
Top Ministers from key G20 countries including US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and UK Secretary of State for Internation Trade Kemi Badenoch are in Jaipur to attend the Ministerial. Goyal has bilaterals planned with many of the attending Ministers and has already met his counterparts from France, Brazil, Switzerland, UAE and Bangladesh and WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo Iweala.
Goyal said that over the last one year, Trade Ministers and officials from G20 nations have been discussing all the five trade and investment issues prioritised by India and a consensus on all issues was possible.
“There is a possibility of a very good outcome document, coming out after tomorrow’s Minister’s meeting,” he said.
The Minister said he was confident that the Ministerial meet will come up with concrete, actionable agenda which will help the world withstand any future shocks,
G20 members have also deliberated on formulating high level principle for digitalisation of trade and trade facilitation, he added.
Some officials attending the meeting told businessline that while at the official level good progress had taken place on key issues, the uncertainty over the stance on Russia of the attending Ministers had led to some unease on a joint communique.
(The correspondent’s travel to Jaipur has been sponsored by the Commerce & Industry Ministry)
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