Donald Trump is boycotting the summit of G20 leaders in Johannesburg this week and no officials from the United States will attend. “Their loss,” says South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, and he might be right.
An empty chair in Johannesburg
When the US president announced that nobody from his government will attend this week’s G20 summit, he said it was a disgrace that South Africa was hosting the event. Trump cited baseless claims about white farmers being killed and dispossessed as grounds for the boycott, but Washington’s beef with South Africa’s G20 agenda goes deeper.
The G20, which began as a forum for finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations to meet their counterparts from emerging economies in the 1990s, started to meet at summit-level in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash. Alongside G7 members the US, Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Canada and Japan, plus the European Union, the G20 includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the 55-member African Union.
This week’s summit, which starts on Saturday, is the first to be held in Africa and its agenda reflects concerns shared across the continent about the impact of debt on the cost of capital, the need for a faster transition to green energy and better access to healthcare. For months, US officials have been working to frustrate South African efforts to find a consensus within the G20 on these issues, making clear Washington’s ideological opposition to multilateral action on everything from the climate to public health.
South Africa is also using its G20 presidency to turn a global spotlight on inequality, commissioning a group of experts chaired by Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz to look at the extent of it, its causes, the consequences and what can be done about it. The panel’s report shows that while global income inequality has fallen since the start of this century, mainly because of China’s economic development, wealth inequality is growing.
The richest 1 per cent in the world captured 41 per cent of all new wealth since 2000, with the bottom 50 per cent claiming just 1 per cent of it. The years since the coronavirus pandemic have seen an absolute increase in hunger, with one in four people in the world facing moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning that they have to skip meals regularly.
“Inequality causes people’s lives to be more fragile, leading to perceptions of unfairness that spark frustration and resentment. That, in turn, undermines social and political cohesion, eroding citizens’ trust in authorities and institutions. The consequences are political instability, decreased confidence in democracy, enhanced conflicts and diminished appetite for international co-operation,” the report said.
Describing inequality as a policy choice that can be reversed, the report calls for the establishment of an International Panel on Inequality, modelled on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The panel would focus on data and analysis rather than advocacy, monitor trends, assess the consequences of inequality and evaluate alternative policies for addressing it.
Trump’s decision to freeze funding for USAid has caused most harm to African countries, many of which depended on US contributions to keep their health services running. Some European countries are also cutting overseas aid budgets, partly to fund higher spending on defence.
Despite its problems, Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies; a young, increasingly well-educated population; abundant natural resources; and almost unlimited potential for solar energy. By skipping the continent’s biggest international meeting for years, the US is creating an opportunity for other global players to step in.
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- Denis Staunton’s Global Briefing, a guide to understanding world events, which goes out from Monday to Thursday, makes sense of what’s happening, why it matters and how it affects you. To receive this newsletter you will need to be a subscriber. You can subscribe here.
