THE G20, or group of 20, is an international meeting between heads of states, finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s leading economies.
With this year’s summit about to begin, here’s the lowdown on the influential group – and what is going to be discussed this week…
The world leaders ahead of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, in September 2016
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting this year’s G20 Summit in Hamburg
Founded in 1999 to give developing countries a more powerful voice in the global economy, the summit brings together industrialised and emerging economies.
The group makes up 85 per cent of the world’s GDP and two-thirds of its population.
When it was first started, only finance ministers and central bank governors met at G20 summits.
But a meeting was held between heads of state after the Lehman Brothers crash in 2008, which led to a global recession.
There has been a yearly meeting between G20 country leaders since. Between 2009 and 2010, when the global economy was in crisis, leaders met twice a year.
Since the first meeting in Berlin, 1999, there have been 18 G20 summits between finance ministers and central bank governors.
There have been 10 between heads of state or the government of G20 economies.
Much of G20’s work takes place on the sidelines and in informal meetings – not at the annual summit.
This year’s main G20 forum is being held from 7-8 July in Hamburg, Germany.
As well as permanent members of the committee, the leaders of Guinea, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Senegal, Singapore, Spain and Vietnam will also be in attendance.
This will be the 12th G20 summit and the first time it has been hosted by Germany.
It is being hosted at the Hamburg Messe and Congress, a large convention centre which regularly hosts trade fairs.
Their discussions will also focus on missile testing by North Korea in the face of escalating nuclear weapon development from Kim Jong-un’s state in recent months.
Germany and the US could find themselves on collision course in Hamburg after Angela Merkel signalled that climate change, free trade and migration would be key themes of the summit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Trump at the official reception to the opening day of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, July 7. (Daniel Kopatsch/EPA)
HAMBURG — The growing international isolation of the United States under President Trump was starkly apparent Friday as the leaders of major world economies mounted a near-united opposition front against Washington on issues ranging from climate to free trade.
At a gathering of the Group of 20 world economic powers — normally a venue for drab displays of international comity — there were tough clashes with the United States and even talk of a possible transatlantic trade war.
The tensions were a measure of Trump’s sharp break with previous U.S. policies. They were also a warning signal of Washington’s diminished clout, as the leaders of the other 19 nations gathered in Hamburg mulled whether to fix their signatures to statements that would exclude Trump or to find some sort of compromise. Two European officials said they were leaning toward a united front against Washington.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose difficult job it was to find some form of compromise, made little attempt to paper over the differences after the first day of meetings.
“The discussions are very difficult. I don’t want to talk around that,” Merkel said.
She described the view of most participants that “we need free but also fair trade,” a rejection of Trump’s skepticism about the value of sweeping free-trade agreements. And she predicted that the lower-level officials charged with negotiating a final statement deep into the night “had a lot of work ahead of them.”
Some of the clearest divides had to do with climate change, following Trump’s decision to pull the United States from the Paris climate accords. There were also sharp warnings about U.S. steel policy as Trump mulls restrictions on imports.
The summit was also the venue for the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who U.S. intelligence agencies allege intervened in November’s election to swing it in favor of the Republicans. The two leaders sat for a two-hour-and-sixteen-minute meeting, which started out with chumminess between the pair.
In one of the most consequential decisions of his young administration, Trump could within days impose the restrictions on steel, a move that could impact trade with more than a dozen major countries.
“We will respond with countermeasures if need be, hoping that this is not actually necessary,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters.
“We are prepared to take up arms if need be,” Juncker said, warning that Europe would respond in days, not months, if Trump announces the restrictions.
The comments were a remarkable display of disharmony at the beginning of the meeting and a reflection of how European officials have become more comfortable challenging Trump’s foreign policy stances.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is near completion of a multi-month review of U.S. steel imports, and he has said that the large amount of steel imported by the United States puts national security at risk because it has weakened the domestic steel industry. The White House is considering using this rationale to impose new restrictions, either by imposing tariffs, quotas or a combination of the two.
Ahead of the summit, the White House was close to making a decision, but top Trump administration advisers slowed the process down at the last minute, persuading Trump to meet with other world leaders at the G-20 before deciding how to proceed.
The Trump administration has blamed China for what it says is a “global overcapacity” of steel, essentially arguing that the Chinese government is subsidizing the steel industry and allowing its producers to create and export so much steel that it drives down prices and makes it difficult for U.S. producers to compete.
But any U.S. restriction on steel imports would have a relatively muted effect on China, and would hit other countries much harder.
The largest exporters of steel to the United States are Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey, according to IHS Global Trade Atlas. Germany also has a large steel industry, and German officials have been particularly concerned about what a unilateral move to impose restrictions on steel imports to the United States might mean.
Trump and Merkel spoke about trade and steel a few days ago, a reflection of how seriously both sides consider any new action on the issue.
In a Twitter post on Friday, Trump wrote of the G-20 that “I will represent our country well and fight for its interests! Fake News Media will never cover me accurately but who cares!”
As he entered the meetings Friday morning, he strode up to Merkel, smiling, then shook her hand vigorously. Walking away, he looked toward reporters and pumped his fist in the air.
The White House’s National Economic Council has changed the Trump administration’s approach to steel in the past week, people familiar with the strategy said. They are hoping to galvanize other countries at the G-20 to work together to confront China over its government support for the domestic steel industry, with the idea that joint pressure could be more effective and remove the possibility that the United States has to move alone.
It is unclear, though, whether that approach will be effective. E.U. officials on Friday emphasized their commitment to free trade and open borders.
“It’s up to us to avoid such things as protectionism, this very simple thing. That would be wrong,” Juncker said.
The European Union has pointed proudly at a wide-ranging trade deal with Japan, concluded just Thursday, as a retort to Trump’s protectionist inclinations. Juncker said Europe expects to increase its exports to Japan by a third after trade barriers drop away.
Merkel “certainly will have to use all of her diplomatic skill to make headway on these difficult questions,” Juncker said.
After Friday’s meetings, the lower-level negotiators are poised to gather at 11 p.m. (6 p.m. EDT) and hammer out details through the night.
Another E.U. leader, European Council President Donald Tusk, said he was heartened by Trump’s words of support for Western organizations such as NATO during his Thursday visit to Warsaw. But he was cautious about whether the American outlook had actually changed after months of strain between Washington and Europe.
“We have been waiting for a long time to hear these words from President Trump,” Tusk said. “But the real question is whether it was a one-time incident or a new policy. President Trump said yesterday in Warsaw that words are easy but it is actions that matter. And the first test will be our meeting here in Hamburg.”
Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 in Cleveland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
HAMBURG — Much of the G-20 summit is about optics: carefully orchestrated handshakes and outings, among world leaders but also among their spouses.
So protesters eager to frustrate summit proceedings notched a victory Friday when they blocked Melania Trump from exiting the German government guesthouse where she and President Trump are staying in Hamburg. It was among the most high-profile disturbances in a chaotic security situation, as police officers in riot gear, reinforced by armored vehicles, sought to shield the summit from widespread demonstrations.
Trump was unable to join other spouses for a tour of Hamburg's harbor, which was expected to precede a visit to a climate research center. The venue for the second part of the gathering had to be changed, due to traffic blockades mounted by the protesters.
Police secure the area around the accomodation where U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will stay during their visit to the G20 summit on July 7, 2017 in Hamburg, (Alexander Koerner/Getty)
Stephanie Grisham, the first lady's spokeswoman, said police were unable to secure the surroundings to allow Trump to leave.
“She was prevented from participating in today's spousal program, which she was looking forward to,” Grisham said in a statement.
Trump herself tweeted well-wishes for those injured in widespread demonstrations across the German port city, where two days of summit meetings began Friday.
We all know that President Donald Trump likes to get prime position in any photo opportunity. On his first visit to Europe in May, he appeared to shove the prime minister of Montenegro aside in order to get to the front of the pack of world leaders, providing yet another viral sensation for the internet.
Unfortunately for Trump, he was unable to use the same tactics in Hamburg Friday as he posed for his first G20 photo. Instead, Trump was left on the outside looking in, to the far right of the group, only prevented from being on the very outer limits by French President Emmanuel Macron, who made a late move to stand next to the American leader.
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Brazilian President Michel Temer, Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.S. President Donald Trump, European Council President Donald Tusk, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Financial Stability Board President Mark Carney, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Saudi Arabia Minister of State Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf, United Nations Secretary-general Antonio Guterres, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc pose for a family photo at the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 7.Ludovic Marin/Reuters
While it certainly would have been interesting, any attempts by Trump to ensure a more prime position in the shot likely would have proven futile. There are complex protocols that go into determining the positions of the world leaders in the official photo but it primarily comes down to how long they have been in office.
Thus, Trump, who only entered the White House in January, was on the outskirts, with Macron, who became French president in May, to the outside of him. On the other side of the shot was South Korea’s newly elected leader, Moon Jae-In.
Meanwhile, taking up prime position in the center of the photo was Germany’s Angela Merkel, who has held power in Germany since 2005.
The protocol involved didn’t stop many from attaching plenty of symbolism to the U.S. president being on the outer reaches of world leaders, particularly when a year ago Barack Obama was front and center next to Merkel.
From left, front row: Brazil's President Michel Temer, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, China's President Xi Jinping, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye, Argentina's President Mauricio Macri, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi; second row, from left: Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Muhammad bin Salman Al Saud, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Laos' President Bounnhang Vorachith, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Chad's President Idriss Deby, Senegal's President Macky Sall, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Council President Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker; (3rd row L-R) Argentina's President Mauricio Macri, (unknown), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and three others pose for family photo in Hangzhou on September 4, 2016.Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
Trump has embraced a set of “America First” policies that put the values of international cooperation firmly to the backburner. Most notably, he pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, making the U.S. only the third country not signed up to the historic agreement to tackle climate change. In his speech announcing the decision, Trump encapsulated his approach by plainly stating that he represents the people of “Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
Predictably, the decision was met by widespread condemnation around the world, notably by Macron and Merkel. Following Trump’s first visit to Europe, during which he failed to pledge the United States’ commitment to NATO’s Article 5, the principle of common defense, Merkel said that the era of Europe being able to fully rely on the U.S. was over under Trump’s leadership.
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The world leaders ahead of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, in September 2016
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Trump at the official reception to the opening day of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, July 7. (Daniel Kopatsch/EPA)
Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 in Cleveland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Police secure the area around the accomodation where U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will stay during their visit to the G20 summit on July 7, 2017 in Hamburg, (Alexander Koerner/Getty)
