US-China thaw to facilitate talks on WTO reform

Communications between two sides will foster cooperation on global challenges

SAN FRANCISCO:

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday this week’s meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping is a badly needed signal that the world needs to cooperate more.

“It sends a signal to the rest of the world that we must find ways to cooperate on those challenges where no country on its own can succeed,” Georgieva told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The Biden-Xi meeting is “important at a time when geo-economic fragmentation has indeed deepened with negative consequences for the prospects for accelerating growth,” Georgieva said.

Biden and Xi agreed on Wednesday to open a presidential hotline, resume military-to-military communications and work to curb fentanyl production, showing tangible progress in their first face-to-face talks in a year.

The meeting did not alter a growing array of national security-driven trade and investment restrictions between the world’s two largest economies, but Georgieva said the resumption of communications was important at a very uncertain time for the global economy.

Read: Biden, Xi meet as US-China military, economic tensions grind on

Georgieva said the US-China thaw had a positive effect on leaders at the APEC summit, where her key takeaway was that “the spirit of cooperation is demonstrably stronger. And the world does need it.”

Georgieva said revived US-China communications will also help foster cooperation on global challenges, especially climate change, with the COP28 climate conference due to start at the end of November.

US-China engagement also will be an important factor on negotiations over World Trade Organisation reform, including restoration of its dispute settlement system. WTO ministers are due to meet in February in the United Arab Emirates.

Israel’s war against Hamas continues to be “devastating” for the population and economy of Gaza, with “severe impacts” on the West Bank’s economy, Georgieva said.

It is also putting pressure on the neighbouring economies of Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, which are seeing reduced tourism and higher gas costs, she said.

For Egypt, the IMF is “seriously considering” a possible augmentation of the country’s $3 billion loan programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2023.

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