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Politics

The G20 in Osaka

Jun 21, 2019 Abe Shinzō

Japan is advocating a system of “Data Free Flow with Trust,” an approach that attempts to allow the free flow of data under rules upon which all people can rely. And launching DFFT is just one of four major agenda items that Japan's prime minister has in store for the group's upcoming summit.

TOKYO – On June 28, I will host the 2019 G20 summit in Osaka. Our agenda will focus on three key issues, each of which is particularly important for Asia.

The first agenda item concerns what I believe is the most important challenge of our times: working to maintain and ultimately strengthen the international order for free and fair trade. For Asia’s leaders, this means forging the RCEP, or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, an advanced free-trade agreement between the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the six Indo-Pacific states (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand).

Those discussions have gone on for some time. We must now make a dash toward the goal line.

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j. von Hettlingen Jun 23, 2019

Shinzo Abe is hosting this year’s G20 summit in Osaka on June 28-29. Ahead of the gathering of world leaders he highlights his ambitious agenda, which will focus on three key issues. As he says that each of the three is “particularly important” for Asia, it shows that the world economy is increasingly Asia-centric. The continent is home to half of the world’s population, and generates 35 to 40 percent of the global economy.
The author’s main goal is “working to maintain and ultimately strengthen the international order for free and fair trade.” Since Trump pulled out of Obama’s Trans-Pacific-Partnership deal soon after he took office, Asia’s leaders have redirected their focus on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), an advanced free-trade agreement between the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the six Indo-Pacific states (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand).
The second item on the agenda concerns the Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) – a system that Japan advocates, to allow the free flow of data “under rules upon which all people can rely.” As our global economy is undergoing a digital transformation, the process has “enabled unique and unprecedented business models, but it has also brought new challenges, such as double non-taxation for multinational companies.” The author believes one can “resolve such issues only through international cooperation.” He also sees an overhaul of the WTO as a start.
The third issue for this year’s G20 summit is how to tackle global environmental challenges and to look for innovative solutions that prevent an armageddon. The goals outlined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “1.5˚C report” can not be achieved “through regulation alone.” It is essential to come up with “disruptive innovation” that would transform from “something negative into something positive,” in order to realise the goals.
The author’s agenda sounds very appealing, which reminds of the pioneering spirit of the first G20 summit held in November 2008, amid the turmoil that wracked global financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. There was a sense of determination among world leaders to cooperate and bring the world’s economy back on its fee. A decade on, the US, as leader of the free world, has embarked on an ill-fated trip of protectionism and isolationism.
The agenda – free and fair trade, and climate change – that the author proposes is hardly Trump’s cup of tea. For him, trade is a zero-sum game, and global warming a joke. He abandoned the Paris Agreement on climate change, and he is waging a trade war with much of the world on the pretext of reducing America’s exorbitant trade deficits.
Trump has no appetite to reform the World Trade Organisation, which deals with the global rules of trade between nations, whose main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. In fact he has threatened to take the US out of WTO. The world is watching Trump’s moves and words closely. He knows that and looks forward to being showered with global attention.
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P. Kamath Jun 23, 2019

With all due respects to His Excellency the Prime Minister, I still don’t understand what data sharing means and would do to less developed nations in the East!
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Madurai Padmanabhan Jun 23, 2019

Beautiful harmony in Asia Pacific as suggested here also needs a security element that is governed by countries of the region, not 20th century legacy military powers.
It is time for Japan/Australia and NZ to trust regional players more and let go of the current apron strings they hold.
Until that is possible, Abe’s data trust is impossible and thus fair trade is tough.
WTO appears to have become a bystander anyway.
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Margaret Bowker Jun 23, 2019

I enjoyed PM Shinzo Abe's opinion piece on the coming G20 summit in Osaka and found it extremely informative. He has three subjects under discussion. Firstly, a desire to see an impetus in the work being done on RCEP, the advanced free trade agreement, between ASEAN and the six Pacific nations so that there is the potential for getting it confirmed and signed. (I imagine the UK will be following this free trade discussion very closely.) Running alongside this, is PM Abe's proposal to revitalise the WTO, now 25 years old and requiring 'refurbishment' - my word - and Japan's initiative to establish DFFT, a global data flow trust system. Which fits well with the third subject, global environmental challenges, and the sharing of data between scientists around the world, a logical concept. Thursday's G20 should be vibrant and pro-active. I'm looking forward to it.
- DM BARAZNJI Jun 25, 2019
  
  the UK was invited to RCEP under a request of the UK as an observer and for future partnership
  Now not any more! ... I wonder what happened, need to ask Dr Fox and his insistence of having Global security from the UK perspective(s) in ever trade deal
  
  Sorry to say it, but Our (UK) economy is based on fear & aggression, we did not fit in the EU, and will not fit in RCEP
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