Excess industrial-production capacity is a global issue that has depressed international commerce and harmed workers, trade ministers from the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations said Sunday after meeting in China, The Wall Street Journal reports. The declaration cast a spotlight on China’s influence as the world’s largest exporter of manufactured goods such as steel. The Shanghai meeting sought to address what the host, Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, called a “very sluggish recovery” marked by growing protectionism, reduced foreign direct investment and other signs of fragmentation in the global trading system that together risk making 2016 the fifth-straight year that international commerce lags behind global growth.
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