Jaipur, 25 Aug: Adopting an outcome document after a two-day meet here, the G20 trade and investment ministers on Friday arrived at a consensus to map global value chains, spur integration of MSMEs and increase digitalisation of documents with a view to promoting global commerce.
However, the meeting concluded without a joint communique due to differences among certain member countries over references to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Only one para which is out of a 17-page (outcome) document, is an area where we could not get consensus for obvious reasons,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here.
The ministers jointly recommended certain priority areas to the G20 leaders, who would meet on September 9-10 in New Delhi, with a view to ensure that international trade and investment can effectively contribute to resilient GVCs (global value chains), spur integration of MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) in global trade, and to advance WTO (World Trade Organisation) reforms.
The outcome document called for a ‘Jaipur Call for Action’ to fully address the information gaps faced by MSMEs.
For this, the members recognised the importance of taking necessary steps towards increasing the availability of trade and market-related information to them in an accessible manner, the document said, adding that there is a need to scale up the existing portal that is already providing such business and trade-related information to MSMEs.
At present, there are several domestic, regional and international portals, such as the Global Trade Helpdesk, Trade4MSMEs and government-sponsored platforms that seek to provide trade-related information to MSMEs.
Regarding sharing of data for the sector, it said the member countries need to provide Global Trade Helpdesk with appropriate aggregated trade-related information relevant to MSMEs available on a single portal and provide access to data or information publicly available on such portals through appropriate technological frameworks.
It suggested the G20 leaders recommend ITC (International Trade Centre) work on a detailed implementation plan, in consultation with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and the WTO; and incorporate the principles of technological neutrality, data privacy, data security and reliability while upgrading the Global Trade Helpdesk.
On digitalisation of trade documents, the outcome document said that traditional trade documentation processes are often mired in paperwork, leading to substantial costs in time and labour and due to that the G20 Trade and Investment Minister has identified a set of high-level principles for the digitalisation of the documents.
“In the current global trade environment, the reliance on paper-based documentation processes is prevalent across most jurisdictions. While such practices have traditionally served the needs of the sector, they are now recognised as time-consuming, labour-intensive and prone to errors,” it said.
Digitalisation can reduce these costs significantly as the delay in consignments’ clearance due to manual paperwork leads to further increased costs of logistics besides causing suboptimal utilisation of logistics capabilities.
It said the digitalisation initiatives for trade documents should remain unbiased towards any specific technology, software or system and the initiatives should ensure the immutability and interoperability of data for seamless communication and exchange across diverse systems.
“To ensure the security of data related to electronic trade document(s), the utilised technologies, including their related digital infrastructure should adopt robust encryption and other security protocols to protect data and the infrastructure concerned against physical damage and information security threats or data theft,” it added.
However, it said that sharing of electronic trade documents and related data should be voluntary.
Further on strengthening GVCs, the document stated that as countries take steps to mitigate risks to GVCs, including regional value chains, policy actions can benefit from a well-defined, voluntary and non-binding generic mapping framework based on certain building blocks.
These blocks include collecting timely high-quality sector-level data; and the use of models and indicators, which can provide key insights from such GVC data..
“G20 members can come together to address the need for keeping critical GVCs resilient and robust,” it said, adding, that a few high-level principles that can guide these efforts include data-driven analysis.
The members endorsed voluntary and non-binding “G20 Generic Framework for Mapping GVCs”.
“In this regard, we recognise the value of cooperation to enhance the transparency of the measures affecting GVCs.
“We are working towards understanding where the problems in GVCs are and what needs to be done,” Goyal told reporters.
“It takes care of data, takes care of analysis, takes care of concentration of suppliers and markets. It addresses concerns around volatility of trade volume and value. It also looks at upstream and downstream product needs or industry needs. It addresses the criticality of seamless flow of goods through the value chain, and also looks at connectivity,” Goyal said.
In the Trade for Growth and Prosperity part of the discussion, the G20 members agreed to strengthen cooperation to increase transparency of Technical Barriers to Trade and Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures both of which set standards on imports to protect human, plant or animal health.
The member deliberated on five priority areas – trade for growth and prosperity, trade and resilient global value chain, integrating MSMEs in global trade, logistics for trade and World Trade Organisation (WTO) reform.
On the WTO reform, the ministers reaffirmed their commitment to conducting discussions with a view to having a fully and well-functioning Dispute Settlement System accessible to all members by 2024.
The dispute settlement of the WTO has not been fully functional since the end of 2019 as the US has not agreed to the appointment of members to the appellate body because of which many cases are pending.
“We will continue to work constructively to ensure positive outcomes including WTO reform at the WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC),” the outcome document said. The MC is the highest decision-making body of the WTO which meets every two years. Its next meeting is in Abu Dhabi in February 202.
In February, the meeting of finance leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies, referred to as the group of 20 or G20, in Bengaluru ended without a joint communique after Russia and China opposed any reference to the war in Ukraine. Also, no communique was issued after the third G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting at Gandhinagar in July. (PTI)
The G20 members include Canada, France, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UK, the USA and the EU. Representatives from six invitee countries — Bangladesh, Egypt, Netherlands, Oman, Singapore and the UAE — will also participate.
G20 accounts for 85 per cent of global GDP, 78 per cent of global trade, and almost two-thirds of the world’s population. India is holding the presidency for this year. (PTI)