G20 Trade Ministers Meet at Milwaukee Under US Presidency

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal took part in the opening day of the G20 Trade Ministers Meeting at Milwaukee in the American state of Wisconsin. The meeting is being hosted under the United States G20 Presidency.

The outcome document

The ministers agreed on an outcome document titled the G20 Statement on the Weaponization of Food through Coercive Trade Actions, and said they would keep working together on the subject. For an exam, the title of the statement and the host city are the two things to carry away.

What India said on food and trade

Speaking in the session on food and trade, Goyal thanked the Presidency for putting food at the centre of the agenda and argued that food must never be turned into an instrument of pressure on any country. He said the Global South suffers most from the food, fuel and fertiliser shocks that follow global conflicts, and warned that a shortage of fertiliser today can become a food crisis tomorrow.

• India fed more than 1.4 billion people through the pandemic and sent foodgrains to countries in need
• More than 800 million people in India currently receive foodgrains free of cost
• India keeps public stockholding and buys from small and marginal farmers
• When a harvest falls short, India uses temporary and transparent measures to keep food available and affordable

Goyal said these steps are recognised at the World Trade Organization, including through the Bali Ministerial Decision and the Geneva Ministerial Declaration, and asked for a clear line between measures taken for food security and coercive trade actions. He pointed to the G20 Agricultural Market Information System, set up in 2011, and to the exemption given to World Food Programme purchases from export restrictions at the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO. India, he said, stands for a rules-based, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and inclusive multilateral trading system with the WTO at its centre.

Other engagements

Earlier in the day Goyal joined the other trade ministers and Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, on a visit to the Rockwell Automation office and factory at Mequon. On the sidelines he held bilateral meetings with the Brazilian minister for development, industry, trade and services and the Brazilian foreign minister, the United States Trade Representative, the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the Secretary of Economy of Mexico and the Minister of Finance and Economy of Poland. The welcome dinner was hosted at the Milwaukee Art Museum.