Milwaukee (AFP) – The United States is pushing for action against excess industrial capacity that drives prices down unfairly, Washington’s top trade envoy said Wednesday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, with some countries — excluding China — agreeing to a plan that includes lowering subsidies. The developments came as officials from the Group of 20 major economies convene in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee over two days, with a group of countries agreeing on a framework to counter “persistent” excess steel production. This is a criticism often levied against China, with accusations that it produces more than it consumes, flooding markets. Beijing rejects these claims.
“We’re releasing a Milwaukee framework to take coordinated action on steel excess capacity,” top US trade official Jamieson Greer told reporters Wednesday. “Every country will do what they think is appropriate. We want to coordinate those measures,” Greer added. “The United States has taken robust measures, and it probably makes sense for other countries to do that too.” He did not elaborate if he meant for countries to raise trade barriers on Chinese steel. Greer’s comments came after a meeting of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, whose 28 members include the European Union, Australia, Japan, and South Korea — but not China.
Asked about his message to partners this week on overcapacity, China’s international trade representative Li Chenggang told AFP that G20 members had yet to discuss the topic in earnest. Besides plans to reduce or eliminate “market-distorting subsidies,” members of the steel global forum also agreed to boost data sharing to help identify “suspicious patterns of steel trade,” according to the framework. It added that members would also take “trade measures,” if needed, on countries that overproduce.
G20 trade ministers toured a business in Milwaukee on Wednesday and are set for talks in the afternoon. But US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs cast a pall over their agenda and have pushed countries to seek cooperation outside the world’s biggest economy. The talks come amid a deepening US-Canada trade war, waves of US tariffs, and Trump’s investigations into member countries over excess industrial capacity. Analysts expect few breakthroughs as trade tensions simmer. Countries are meanwhile seeking deals with the Trump administration, with India pushing to get a trade pact over the finish line.
The G20 trade ministerial comes after finance ministers met in Asheville, setting the stage for a leaders’ summit in Miami. Heading into talks early Wednesday, Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski urged for a lowering of trade barriers. “I do hope that our US partners will stick to all settlements that were made,” he added, referring to an earlier deal between the United States and European Union to cap Trump’s duties on the bloc at 15 percent. Ongoing US investigations into overcapacity target 16 trading partners including China, the EU, Japan, and India — bringing the threat of additional tariffs even to those who earlier struck agreements.
Poland is not a permanent G20 member but has been invited to the table this year as Washington holds the grouping’s rotating presidency. In turn, US officials have excluded South Africa. Also on the agenda this week are efforts to eliminate forced labor in supply chains and the targeting of access to food supplies to pressure others. Domanski on Wednesday condemned “all actions taken by Russia against the export of agriculture products from Ukraine,” as Moscow and Kyiv remain at war after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Asked about existing deals to cut tariffs imposed by Trump in his second presidency, Greer told reporters Tuesday: “We will certainly take them into account.” On reaching a pact with Canada, where certain products now face a US ban due to their trade spat, Greer added: “It’s not urgent for us. At some point will there be a deal? I mean, presumably,” he said. “Eventually, it will happen.” The G20 comprises 19 nations plus the EU and the African Union.
© 2024 AFP
