Turkey stresses peace, security for world economy at G20

Turkey's economy minister underlined Saturday the value of world peace and security for the global economy during a G20 meeting hosted by China.

"It is not possible for us to achieve economic or trade growth or increased investment without a fundamental component," Nihat Zeybekci said, stressing "the importance of world peace and security in this sense."

In his speech on the theme of Strengthening the G20 Trade and Investment Mechanism, he drew attention to how instability in the global economy continued, and how this negative trend affected international trade growth and the increase of foreign direct investments.

He underlined that during Turkey's G20 presidency last year, which was assumed by China in December, a comprehensive agenda including both trade and investment issues had been adopted.

"Turkey, leaving behind many developed and developing countries, attained growth of 4 percent in 2015 and 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2016," he said at the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting in Shanghai.

"However, on a global level, we could not reach the same encouraging reflection."

Zeybekci added that if balanced, strong and sustainable growth was to be pursued, investments would have to be increased and new employment opportunities created.

"We must facilitate trade through both bilateral and multilateral initiatives," he said. "Especially for our small and medium sized enterprises, we must ensure access to trade financing mechanisms."

G20 seeks to enhance trade growth in face of protectionism

In the face of a "worrying" rise in protectionism, trade ministers from the world's major economies have agreed to cut trade costs, increase policy coordination and enhance financing, China's Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said on yesterday.

The Group of 20 trade ministers, who wrapped up a two-day meeting in Shanghai yesterday, approved a broad trade growth strategy aimed at reversing a slowing in global trade, and backed guiding principles for global investment policymaking.

"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 ministers said in a joint statement.

"We agree that we need to do more to achieve our common objectives for global growth, stability and prosperity."

The specter of protectionism has loomed large over global trade amid sluggish economic growth and is a pressing concern for China.

The country's huge but struggling steel sector has relied on exports to offset the impact of slowing domestic demand, but it has been accused of using unfair pricing to push foreign competitors out of business.

The ministers discussed the need to address overcapacity, particularly in the steel sector, but some disagreed about the need for specific new commitments to resolve the problem, said one senior trade official involved in the talks, declining to be identified because details of the discussions had not been made public.

The joint statement reflected China's concerns that the country was being singled out for blame for a glut that has led to a collapse in global prices, noting instead that excess capacity in steel and other industries is "a global issue which requires collective responses", and that subsidies and government support could cause distortions.

The United States has been a vocal critic of China's excess capacity, saying its pledges have not gone far enough to resolve the problem.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement that the G20 had "added to the chorus of voices calling for tackling the root causes of excess capacity for the benefit of both developing and developed countries".

Chinese trade officials have repeatedly stressed that the country has been the victim of overzealous anti-dumping actions by foreign countries, which fail to take into account Chinese efficiency or its low labor and production costs.

The trade growth strategy adopted by the ministers spelled out broad principles for stimulating trade, including lowering costs, boosting trade finance and stimulating the service sector.

The investment policymaking guiding principles urged governments to avoid protectionism in relation to cross-border investment and establish "nondiscriminatory, transparent and predictable" conditions for investment.

Global foreign exchange rates, in flux since Britain's referendum to leave the European Union, were not mentioned in the joint statement, and the senior trade official involved in the talks said the issue had not been discussed.

On Britain's exit vote, UK and EU representatives in Shanghai were at pains to stress that they would come up with a "sensible and mature new arrangement", South Africa's Minister for Trade and Industry Rob Davies told Reuters on Saturday.