After a meeting of top trade ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries on Wednesday (March 31), they issued a joint statement blaming the Chinese Communist Party, pledging to take collective action to address “harmful industrial subsidies” and other market-distorting practices. The G7 includes the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Italy and Japan.
The Voice of America reported that the official statement said officials from the G7 countries’ trade departments held their first network “G7 Trade Track” ministerial meeting on Wednesday. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the new director general of the World Trade Organization, attended the videoconference.
The statement said G7 trade ministers reaffirmed the importance of a rules-based multilateral trading system; they argued that other trading partners would be willing to join if the world’s leading democracies came together to develop an agenda “to make the global trading system fairer, more sustainable, and responsive to the needs of citizens. this agenda.
Western countries have long been unhappy with the large subsidies given to domestic companies by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the joint statement directly accuses the CCP of unfair competition through state subsidies, although the statement does not name the CCP, but says in the section on “free and fair trade”: “Trade ministers will discuss the impact of market-distorting practices on our economy, such as harmful industry subsidies, including those that contribute to overcapacity in certain sectors, and develop ways to collectively address these issues.”
Chinese Communist Party subsidies in industries such as steel have also fueled the global overcapacity problem. In its annual National Trade Assessment released Wednesday, the U.S. government said the Communist authorities’ market interventions and subsidies to achieve economic development ambitions have not only crowded out international businesses but also created global overcapacity in industries such as steel, aluminum and solar energy, and that the U.S. will take further action to “address these harmful trade practices.” .
The G7 statement also said that not all people in the G7 countries feel the benefits of trade, and that distortions of markets and competition can lead to lower economic efficiency and a lower sense of fairness and trust in the system.
The annual U.S. National Trade Assessment report also recognized the importance of the Trump administration’s “Phase I Agreement” on U.S.-China trade with the Chinese Communist Party, saying it “establishes a robust dispute resolution system that ensures swift and effective implementation and enforcement. Since the first phase of the agreement took effect last February, the report said, “the United States has continued to engage with China as issues have arisen and has continued to closely monitor developments.”
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