Press statement from the European Aluminium
Date
03 Dec 2018
Sections
InfoSociety
To: US, EU, Canadian, Japanese, Brazilian and Mexican G20 Leaders
Cc: G20 Foreign Ministers and G20 Sherpas
Your Excellencies:
Earlier this year, G7 leaders recognized the need for global action to level the playing field for the aluminium industry. We urge the G20 to again commit to tackling the issue of market-distorting aluminium overcapacity that stems from state interference and puts aluminium producers across the entire value chain at a profound disadvantage.
Free trade is an engine of prosperity, social mobility and peace – but free trade is only possible and meaningful when businesses are able to operate on an equal footing across the globe.
As organisations representing the aluminium industry in their respective regions, we are increasingly concerned about the persistent growth in overcapacity in both the upstream and mid- and downstream segments of the aluminium industry. This trend is exacerbating the difficulties in creating a global level playing field for aluminium trade. We urge global political leaders to identify shared objectives and commit to definitive action on addressing competitive distortions caused by state-related involvement in the aluminium market.
The growing impact of state-directed interference and unfair industrial subsidies can no longer be ignored. The globally integrated aluminium industry needs your leadership to begin the process of setting new, more effective rules on subsidies that will promote market-oriented conditions for a fair, mutually advantageous global trading system. This deserves to be assessed and adequately handled by multilateral institutions like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with leadership from the G20 countries.
As regional leaders, we strongly believe the G20 can play a pivotal role in shaping a level playing field in our sector. We believe this can be best achieved by taking positive action to ensure that state-owned enterprises do not have privileged access to non-commercial support that delivers unfair competitive advantage, whether through new multilateral agreements that cover such distortions or a series of wide-ranging domestic and regional policies. In addition, the overall lack of progress by governments in addressing excess capacity is of grave concern. We reiterate our call for G20 Leaders to monitor transparently the evolution of such a dangerous trend and to create the necessary multilateral arrangements to discuss openly and agree on policies to effectively end these distortive approaches. The B20 Trade and Investment conclusions and recommendations provide a roadmap to deal with this particular challenge in our sector.
On behalf of all our members, we stand ready to support G20 leaders with our knowledge, data and commitment to define operational and regulatory mechanisms in which all the producers, wherever they reside in the aluminium value chain, will find trust, transparency and fairness.