 China vows to act with G20 partners to boost world trade Shanghai (AFP) July 9, 2016 - China will work with its G20 partners to promote global trade growth, Beijing's commerce minister said on Saturday, as the world's top economies met in Shanghai. Global trade is expected to grow at a tepid 2.8 percent in 2016, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in April, with uncertainty over Britain's decision to leave the EU only adding to concerns. "The economic recovery and growth is still feeble and global trade is fluctuating at a low level," Gao Hucheng said before ministers began talks, vowing: "China is willing to work with all parties with wisdom, courage and action." WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said on Friday ahead of the talks that 2016 would be the fifth consecutive year with trade growth below three percent -- its weakest sustained level in 30 years. He warned that there were "no immediate signs of significant change in the current trajectory for trade growth". Gao said ministers would discuss how to boost trade and coordinate global investment strategies, as well as how to strengthen investment among G20 nations. "The world is hopeful despite the still difficult tasks which lie in front of us. But there is still great hope and opportunities contained in this," Gao said. Saturday's talks bring together G20 trade ministers as well as representatives from organisations including the IMF, OECD and WTO. They will give a press conference on Sunday after two days of talks behind closed doors. China, a key driver of global growth, has seen its GDP growth slip to its slowest rate in a quarter of a century, with expansion last year weakening to 6.9 percent. The world's largest trader in goods also saw its total trade fall eight percent last year. The World Bank identified the slump in Chinese growth and the country's economic transition as the key factor in a sharp slowdown in global trade last year, in a report released in March. Beijing has been trying to retool its economy to encourage domestic consumption and move away from infrastructure investment and exports as the main drivers of growth, but the pace has been slow. Azevedo also appealed for cooperation in the battle to spur trade. "This is a time for governments to work together to see how trade can be used to boost growth, development and job creation," he said on Friday. "It is a time for vigilance against measures which hamper and restrict trade and against very damaging anti-trade rhetoric."
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EU member states on Friday approved a highly-criticised deal with the US intended to curb government spying on the personal internet data of EU citizens.
Washington and the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had announced the new "Privacy Shield" deal in February.
"Privacy Shield" has now been approved by member-state regulators, the Commission said in a statement.
The deal replaces an agreement that was thrown out by the European Court of Justice last year.
"Today Member States have given their strong support to the EU-US Privacy Shield, the renewed safe framework for transatlantic data flows," said a statement from the commission, which is expected to formally enact the decision next week.
Approval by national regulators "paves the way for the formal adoption of the legal texts and for getting the EU-US Privacy Shield up and running," the European Commission said in a statement.
Top US companies including Facebook and Google in particular have been eager to end the legal void, because they transfer data from their European subsidiaries to their headquarters in the United States.
The deal includes commitments by the US to limit the use of bulk-collected intelligence, the appointment of a US ombudsman to deal with complaints by European citizens, and fines for firms that do not comply.
The deal will also be subject to an annual review.
But activists and European lawmakers are highly critical.
They call the deal still highly deficient in terms of protection from US government access to data, as well as safeguards from bulk data collection.
The European Parliament in May asked the EU to continue negotiating with the United States to remedy "deficiencies" in the agreement.
MEPs said the proposed US ombudsman to deal with complaints by European citizens would neither be "sufficiently independent" nor have enough powers to act.
Austrian internet activist Max Schrems -- who brought a case against Facebook in Ireland that led to the EU court judgement last year -- has said the new deal amounts to putting "10 layers of lipstick on a pig."
The previous agreement, called "Safe Harbor," effectively meant that Europe treated the United States as a safe destination for internet data on the basis that Brussels and Washington adhered to similar standards.
But the EU's top court in October declared Safe Harbor "invalid."
It cited US snooping practices exposed by Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who leaked a hoard of National Security Agency documents.
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