Dangor said the US argument that if one G20 member was absent from the leaders summit, then there could be no consensus, had been voted down

Director general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said South Africa’s G20 presidency highlighted the importance of trade within WTO rules and reforming the system through local mineral beneficiation

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said countries understood ‘that there’s a bilateral issue between South Africa and the US, but that must not, in any shape or form, undermine or imperil the work of the G20’

President Cyril Ramaphosa has cast the annual forum as a test of whether multilateral cooperation still matters

In his weekly newsletter, the president said the G20 must urgently address the fiscal conditions that have left low- and middle-income countries unable to build resilience or recover from shocks

The panel, chaired by Nobel prize-winner economist Joseph Stiglitz, will produce recommendations to help bridge the rich-poor divide