At the end of the G20 Commerce in Milwaukee on Thursday, the United States did not manage to rally other countries on the issue of "industrial overcapacity", a barely veiled attack against Chinese competition, nor on forced labor, a contentious subject since the establishment of American surcharges against around sixty partners.
Published on: 02/10/2026 - 02:25 Modified on: 02/10/2026 - 09:03
The meeting of G20 trade ministers ends on Thursday, October 1, without having moved the lines regarding "industrial overcapacity", announced the American presidency, which regularly criticizes China for engaging in unfair competition.
Washington is this year the organizer of a series of G20 summits, which brings together the major world economies (China, India, Japan, France, Russia, etc.). The last one will bring together heads of state in mid-December in a golf resort owned by American President Donald Trump in Miami.
The meeting dedicated to trade issues took place over two days in Milwaukee (Wisconsin, northern United States), not far from the border with Canada, one of the favored targets of the trade war led by the American executive.
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Summit host and White House Trade Representative Jamieson Greer aimed to highlight the topics of "industrial overcapacity" - a thinly veiled attack on Chinese competition - forced labor and the use of food as a weapon.
No agreement on forced labor
Concerning production surpluses which are pushing prices down, “almost all countries have recognized that this is a problem that requires action,” Jamieson Greer said at a press conference. Unsurprisingly, a consensus was therefore not found.
Last month, during the meeting of G20 finance ministers, China - an exporting power with the air of a steamroller - did not sign paragraphs of the final communiqué mentioning this issue. Asked whether the world's second largest economy had once again made its difference heard, Jamieson Greer did not respond.
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Delegates also did not rally behind the U.S. message about forced labor, according to Washington. The theme, apparently consensual, has been contentious since the government of President Donald Trump implemented a surtax against around sixty commercial partners whom it accuses of not sufficiently fighting forced labor. China, India and the European Union (EU) — all members of the G20 — are concerned.
Russians and Europeans not in the same family photo
On the other hand, the participants all refused to allow access to food to become a means of pressure in conflicts. The French Minister Delegate in charge of Foreign Trade, Nicolas Forissier, had earlier underlined to AFP the existence of a "consensus" against "the use of food, agriculture, everything that contributes to agriculture, as a weapon".
“Russia's aggression against Ukraine has led to the use as a weapon of wheat exports that were prevented from Ukraine,” he pointed out. “There is a consensus there, even if certain countries may be in the eye of the storm. I am thinking, on the Ukrainian question, of Russia,” he added.
The United States, which has made a rapprochement with Moscow since Donald Trump's return to power, has invited Russia to sit at all G20 meetings, angering the European countries which support kyiv. It was the Russian Minister of Economic Development, Maxim Rechetnikov, who was in Milwaukee. Before the debates opened on Wednesday, two versions of the traditional family photo were taken - the Europeans not wanting to appear alongside their Russian counterpart.
With AFP
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