Ahead of a virtual meeting of the leaders of the G20, UNGeneral-Secretary Antonio Guterres has appealed to them to adopt amulti-trillion-dollar “war-time” plan to fight the coronaviruspandemic.
“I urge G-20 leaders to consider the urgent launch of alarge-scale, coordinated stimulus package in the trillions of dollars to targetthe direct provision of resources to businesses, workers and households inthose countries unable to do so alone,” he wrote to them on Tuesday.
Guterres asked the G20 to remove tariffs and otherrestrictions on medical equipment and medicines to tide over the shortages insome countries.
The leaders of the G20 are scheduled to hold a virtualmeeting on Thursday, Guterres’s Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
India is a member of the G20, a grouping of 19 countries andthe European Union that deals with financial policy.
Guterres said that the group accounts for 85 per cent of theworld’s gross domestic product.
He said that he will be launching a humanitarian appeal onWednesday focused primarily on 40 countries most vulnerable to the impact ofCovid-19.
“Without this critical support to countries wherehealth systems are most unable to cope, I fear that the virus may take a deepfoothold,” he warned.
He said that the cost of the pandemic is likely to betrillions of dollars and to make up for it the G20 must “inject massiveresources into economies, reaching double-digit percentage points in theworld’s gross domestic product.”
The United States Congress is on the verge of voting a $2trillion relief package for the nation and India is considering amulti-billion-dollar package.
But beyond providing financial aid to the poorest nations,Guterres called for wide-ranging measures like ending protectionism andensuring that recovery follows the goals of sustainable development.