Analysis and Studies - Country Analysis
The G20: an intergovernmental forum
January 11th 2024
What means G20? The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union and the African Union. It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such an international financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable blooming.
The Group of 20 is composed of most of the world’s largest economies’ finance ministries, including industrialised and developing countries; it accounts for around 80% of GWP (gross world product), 75% of international trade, 2/3 of the global population and 60% of the world’s land area.
It was founded in 1999 in response to several world economic crises and since 2008 it congregates at least once a year, with summits involving each member’s head of government or state, finance minister and other ranking officials.
The European Union is represented by the European Commission and the European Central Bank; instead other countries, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations are invited to attend the summits.
Moreover, in September 2023 Indian PM Narendra Modi announced that the African Union has been included as a member of the G20, making it the 21st member.
The goal of G20
The primary goal of G20 has been governance of the global economy. Summit themes have differences from year to year. The theme of the 2006 G20 ministerial meeting was “Building and Sustaining Prosperity”. The issues discussed included domestic reforms to achieve “sustained growth”, global energy and resource commodity markets, reform of the World Bank and International Monetary Found and the impact of demographic changes.
What about organization? The G20 operates without a permanent secretariat or staff. The group’s chair rotates annually among the members and is selected from a different regional grouping of countries. To make an example, in 2022 the summit was held in Bali, Indonesia, but at the moment India is the current chair and hosted the 2023 summit. In 2024 Brazi will host the G20 summit.
Members
As of 2023, there are 21 members in the group: China, United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Italy, France, Canada, Russia, Mexico, United Kingdom, India, Belgium, Spain, Australia, Poland, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Czechia, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, South Africa, Hungary, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Argentina, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, and Malta.
In 2019, G20 exported $16.4T (78% of global exports) and imported $15.9T (75.4% of global imports). Its largest exporter, China exported $3.34T, which corresponds to 20.4% of the total exports. However, the largest importer, United States, imported $2.73T, which is 17.2% of the total imports of G20.
Trade
In 2021, G20's most exported products were Oils petroleum, bituminous, distillates, except crude ($540B), Petroleum oils, oils from bituminous minerals, crude ($495B), Monolithic integrated circuits, digital ($418B), Transmit-receive apparatus for radio, TV, etc. ($364B), and Medicaments nes, in dosage ($280B). The same year, the most imported products were Petroleum oils, oils from bituminous minerals, crude ($825B), Oils petroleum, bituminous, distillates, except crude ($447B), Monolithic integrated circuits, digital ($369B), Transmit-receive apparatus for radio, TV, etc. ($321B), and Medicaments nes, in dosage ($278B).
In 2021, G20's exports went primarly to United States ($2.19T), China ($1.23T), Germany ($1.14T), France ($607B), and Netherlands ($564B). The same year, G20's imported primarily from China ($2.06T), Germany ($1.36T), United States ($1.27T), Netherlands ($567B), and Japan ($502B).
Fonti:
https://oec.world/en
https://data.worldbank.org/
https://www.trademap.org/