G20 divided over excess capacity

The probe is widely expected to lead to new duties in coming months.The USTR statement did not name countries that objected to the excess-capacity statement.

But China had objected to a similar G20 statement denouncing forced labour and non-market economic policies that lead to excessive exports at a finance leaders' meeting a month ago in North Carolina."The draft ministerial statement was supported by all but a handful of members, a few of whom firmly rejected creating this pathway towards cooperative action" on excess capacity, the statement said, adding that this "severely disappointed" the US G20….

Beijing has rejected claims that its industrial policies have created excess capacity, accusing Western countries of using the issue to justify protectionist measures.The US said that G20 trade ministers reached consensus on denouncing the weaponisation of food trade, with members agreeing that trade in food or agricultural inputs should not be used as a tool for economic or political coercion.In that G20 joint statement, the ministers defined the weaponisation of….

"We condemn food weaponisation as it poses a significant humanitarian and economic threat," the G20 trade ministers said.After pressure from US President Donald Trump that included the threat of a US diesel export ban, the Group of Seven countries on Friday agreed to release some 100 million barrels of diesel reserves to try to drive down record-high US diesel prices.

The fuel is widely used in agricultural production.The US led a pressure campaign on the European Union to draw down emergency diesel inventories, with the Trump administration warning that failure to act could lead to a US ban on diesel exports.

Such a ban could sharply reduce supplies to Europe, which has become increasingly reliant on US diesel, and potentially inflict high economic costs on the bloc.

Trump is seeking to cool surging fuel prices ahead of the November mid-term elections.

Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for Alabama that the US would not impose a diesel export ban.

He said the plan was never really on the table, even though in the past two weeks he said several times that such a ban was under consideration, and that he supported the idea.US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday that he did not seek a joint statement on a fourth discussion topic, reforming the "most favoured nation" system of published, unconditional global tariff rates that underpin the World….

MFN tariffs have defined the global trading system since the end of World War Two.Greer has argued that the MFN principle has been abused by non-market-oriented economies such as China that have subsidised industries, but it does not allow these countries to be treated differently.

The US statement said some G20 members had expressed a willingness to consider changes to MFN, including expanding exceptions to the principle and issuing new legal interpretations to enable greater use of existing exceptions.

Two countries sign statement calling for more cooperation to eliminate goods produced with forced labour.