Forum turning farce
S.Narendra
The G20 Summit held in Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Summits are essentially political platforms. Are not
always good ones for addressing vexing global
economic issues. This message came out loudly in the
latest G-20 Summit held in Argentina.
In the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008, G- 20
finance ministers conclave was elevated to heads of
governments Summit at the initiative of US and Britain. It
was supposed to work for coordinating policies to deal with
global financial and trade issues.The first one hosted by
Washington offered some pious hopes but soon US
Federal Reserve diverged. The current American President
makes no bones about single mindedly pursuing his
‘America First ‘ policies.
In Buenos aires, out of the 20 heads of heads of
governments attending, only the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and Turkey’s president Erdogan were present in the first Summit held ten years back. That
was the only fact offering any continuity in G-20
deliberations, otherwise marked by divisions and
diversions.
The US- China trade and tariff war had cast its
shadow. The US- Chinese presidents met and decided
to resolve their disputes and stole the headlines. The
Russian and US presidents shook hands on the
sidelines but did not have any formal meeting.The
shadow of Russian intervention in Ukraine and recent
seizures of Ukraine’s ships, US sanctions against Russia
loomed over the Summit.Turkey President and Saudi
Arabia’s crown prince Salman avoided each other as
the two countries are engaged in a tense dispute over
the killing of Saudi journalist Khashogi ( a critic of
Salman) in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. Who shook
hands with, or smiled at Saudi crown prince became
more newsworthy than the G 20 Summit final
communique.
As if to de-emphasise the importance of G20 and its
focus on multilateralism, a major trilateral agreement
between US, Canada and Mexico was signed during the
Summit for replacing NAFTA -the regional trading pact
unilaterally terminated by President Trump.
Reportedly, both China and US fought over the
wording of the final communique. Very significantly, this document began by saying that the ‘dialogue
continued in search for common ground’. The Climate
Change agreement or Paris Pact was a sore point; the
communique pointedly recorded the US dissent on the
subject by saying that the US reiterated its decision to
withdraw from this Pact.International Trade under WTO
was another item that put China against US.The
Communique barely managed to state : ‘ the multilateral
trading system is falling short of its objectives..we
support the necessary reform of WTO to improve its
functioning ’.
Perhaps, G -20 was doing a better ,purposeful job
when it was a low profile forum of only finance ministers.
‘Shadow banking’
The G-20 watchdog on the global financial system-
Financial Stability Board-set up in 2009, has issued a
grave warning about the threat posed by ‘shadow
banking’ .The term refers to non-banking firms such as
the collapsed ILFS of India that lend money but do not
come under any regulatory scrutiny.According to FSB, the
assets financed by shadow banking worldwide- has
touched $99 trillion or about 30 per cent of such assets.
Unless all countries make concerted effort to regulate
their operations, they could trigger the next financial
crisis worse than the one experienced in 2008,opined
Paul Krugman,the Nobel- Laureate economist in a media
interview.
Where few are prosperous
The Gulf nation's Energy Minister Saad Sherida
al-Kaabi
The tiny gulf state of Qatar made news by announcing
its intention to exit from the 15 nation OPEC on the eve
of the latter’s meeting in Vienna for considering a cut in
oil output from its members amidst falling global crude
oil prices. One does not know whether Qatar -a minor oil exporter but a substantial natural gas marketer-took this
strategic step as a tool of President Trump who has been
putting pressure on Saudi Arabia, the main oil producer,
to maintain oil supplies and stable prices.From a high of
over $100 a barrel, the global oil prices are now ranging
between $50-70,helping oil consuming nations to rein in
inflation and central bank interest rates. The US
president has managed to weaponize oil and US dollar to
further the interests of US oil producers as well as
American diplomacy against Russia and Iran.
Qatar hosts a US military base, has a huge state-owned
(sovereign) fund from which it has lent money to Greece
and Italy-both members of European Union but defying
EU’s central bank. In 2017, Saudi Arabia ousted Qatar
from the gulf state alliance demanding in vain that Qatar
should halt Al-Jazeera TV broadcasts and severe ties
with Iran.
India-Qatar bilateral trade is about $10 billion, of
which LNG and oil Indian imports account for about $9
billion.Interestingly, after the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar
in 2017, India’s exports of food related goods jumped by
50 per cent.
Qatar is one of the few countries with highest per
capita income. But out of its 2.6 million people only a
population in excess of 300,000 enjoy prosperity.
Eco-cost of what we eat
In the recent past, no week passes without a warning Beef has the biggest climate impact :
from scientists about the adverse effects of global
warming on our daily lives.Given below is an info-graph
of what we choose to eat and at what eco-cost:
The author has been Distinguished
Civil Servant and thinker of India.