G-20 must 'walk the walk', not just 'talk the talk', to tackle pandemic fallout

THE clarion call issued by G-20 trade ministers following their videoconference on Monday was as important as it was welcome.

The joint statement pledged, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, to take "immediate necessary measures" to facilitate trade, minimise supply chain disruptions, and that all emergency measures should be "targeted, proportionate, transparent, temporary" and adhere to World Trade Organisation rules.

The key now is to deliver upon these fine words, just as the grouping's presidents and prime ministers who convened last week must also on their pledges to do "whatever it takes" to tackle the economic and social fallout from the pandemic. The danger otherwise is that the G-20 will, yet again, be big on rhetoric but short on substance.