President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday urged governments to ensure that trade becomes a powerful instrument for inclusive, sustainable and balanced growth, saying that when global trade systems are stable and predictable, it gives confidence to governments, assurance to exporters and offers security to workers around the world.

“Such reform should be development-centred and address persisting development gaps in the global economy. Crucially, it must allow developing economies to adopt legitimate public policy measures that support value addition, industrialisation and diversification,” he explained.

Ramaphosa was speaking during the seventh African Union-European Union Summit, held in Angola, where he pointed out that inequality in global trade affected the world’s most vulnerable, including countries that were already burdened by mounting sovereign debt, a sharp decline in exports, and cuts in overseas development assistance.

He acknowledged that the multilateral system was under great pressure, and that geopolitical rivalry continued to cause turbulence in the rules-based international order.

He noted the need for significant reforms to transform the UN, global financial architecture, and the international trade system to enhance sustainability, efficiency, inclusiveness and the voice of developing economy countries.

He said South Africa remained convinced that global challenges were best resolved through multilateralism anchored on the principles of the UN Charter, as he noted that more than two-thirds of UN General Assembly Member States still did not enjoy permanent representation on the UN Security Council.

“To ensure the Security Council's credibility and legitimacy, we need to advance Africa's position as per the Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration.

“For Africa, a stable and predictable multilateral trading system is essential to support growth and meaningful integration into the global economy,” he said.

Over the weekend, G20 leaders adopted a declaration which addressed, among other issues, inequality. World leaders reaffirmed their commitment to support efforts by low- and middle-income countries to address debt vulnerabilities.

“They also affirm the importance of a rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its core. Significantly, the Leaders’ Declaration acknowledges that the agreed-upon rules in the WTO are key to facilitating global trade,” Ramaphosa said.

In the declaration, Ramaphosa said the G20 leaders recognised that meaningful and comprehensive reform of the WTO was essential to improve its functions so that it was better suited to advance all members’ objectives.