Politics

Paris Accord question looms over Brazil’s G20 participation

Trump baby blimp doll at the protests of anarchists and left-wing socialist opposition against G20 and IMF loan. Photo: Alexandr Vorobev/Shutterstock

BUENOS AIRES — Paragraph 27 of the G20 Leaders Declaration may seem generic and vague. “We recognize the contribution that the multilateral trading system has made (…). The system is currently falling short of its objectives and there is room for improvement. We, therefore, support the necessary reform of the WTO [World Trade Organization] to improve its functioning. We will review progress at our next Summit.”

However, diplomats ended the declaration on Saturday at 7:30 am, after a whole night of work in the summit that ended the same day, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Actually it took us a year of negotiations. The United States refuses to acknowledge it has protectionist trade policies. It was really hard to adopt this stance. We had to use very balanced language,” a source of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who took part in the document’s writing, told The Brazilian Report. In spite of the critical tone, the word “protectionism” wasn’t mentioned once in the eight-page document.

The source highlighted that the call for adjustments to world...

Maria Martha Bruno

Maria Martha is a journalist with 14 years of experience in politics, arts, and breaking news. She has already collaborated with Al Jazeera, NBC, and CNN, among others. She has also worked as an international correspondent in Buenos Aires.