It was an important success for the cause of preserving and increasing global trade that the G20 meeting in Australia last week reaffirmed its support for the World Trade Organisation’s Bali Agreement under which all the 160 members of the WTO committed to lowering global trade barriers. On Saturday, the G20 trade ministers explicitly said that they remained committed to free trade as a central driver of growth, despite some G20 members raising concerns about the deal.
The main challenge to the consensus on implementing the Bali deal came from India which has threatened not to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement on its July 31 deadline unless concerns over its food security programme were addressed. But in the end, Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman remained fully committed to the Bali Agreement in return for an assurance from the G20 governments that a resolution could be found for the issue of its food purchase programme.
The US, Australia and the EU want to have greater access to Indian agricultural markets and they also want India to reduce its food subsidies which include publicly funded food grain purchases. In addition, the meeting expressed its outrage at the shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine by Russian- backed rebels. Tony Abbott, Australian prime minister, reserved his position on whether Russia would be suspended from the G20 summit which is due to be held in November and would be attended by all heads of government.
