{"id":63958,"date":"2021-04-20T15:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=63958"},"modified":"2021-04-20T14:29:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T04:29:48","slug":"what-an-australian-secretary-general-of-the-oecd-means-for-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-an-australian-secretary-general-of-the-oecd-means-for-china\/","title":{"rendered":"What an Australian secretary-general of the OECD means for China"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

China\u2019s economic embargo of Australia helped to persuade several OECD members, including the United States and Canada, to back Australia\u2019s Mathias Cormann as the organisation\u2019s new secretary general, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cormann\u2019s selection sends a clear message that the OECD is not willing to cede the Asia\u2013Pacific region to the influence of authoritarian states,\u2019 a CSIS report<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

Although no one suggests that the former Australian finance minister will turn the 37-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development into an arm of US President Joe Biden\u2019s crusade for global democracy, Cormann will be in a position to influence its agenda on issues highlighting China\u2019s departure from global economic norms, such as state subsidies,\u00a0intellectual property protection, labour standards, policy transparency and competition policy.<\/p>\n

Should Cormann wish, he could raise the use of economic coercion as an issue of global concern, including by placing it on to the agenda of the G20.<\/p>\n

Cormann is expected to encourage the expansion of the still heavily Eurocentric membership of the OECD into Asia, potentially including India, Indonesia and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The OECD\u2019s origins were as an institution assisting European economic reconstruction in the wake of World War II, with its membership opened to non-European advanced nations in 1961.<\/p>\n

It offers policy advice to its members and is also the architect of international agreements, conventions and guidelines on issues such anti-bribery, tax administration, development assistance, multinational investment and environmental policy. It also provides benchmark statistics in many areas, including pensions, health, school education standards and budget policy.<\/p>\n

The OECD secretary-general has a seat at G20 meetings alongside the managing director of the International Monetary Fund and the body has sponsored other pivotal global agencies, including the International Energy Agency and the Financial Action Task Force.<\/p>\n

With a staff of around 3,500, including 2,500 researchers, and an annual budget equivalent to $610 million, the Paris-based institution exercises a powerful influence on global economic policy.<\/p>\n

Cormann was an outsider for the post. He didn\u2019t have a history of engagement in global economic policy issues, besides occasionally representing Australia at IMF and G20 meetings, when Scott Morrison, in his former role as treasurer, was too busy to attend.<\/p>\n

By contrast, his final rival, Sweden\u2019s Cecilia Malstrom, had spent five years as the European Union\u2019s commissioner for trade and had also been its minister for EU affairs and home affairs.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s reluctance to adopt ambitious targets on climate change and its continuing commitment to coal counted against Cormann\u2019s candidacy. Malstrom supported tougher action on climate change, including Europe\u2019s proposed carbon taxes on imports. There was also a view among some members that the job should go to a woman.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Cormann had much more enthusiastic support from his home government than did Malstrom, who was from a minor party in the Swedish opposition. The CSIS argues that Australia\u2019s strong conviction that a key multilateral institution required leadership in the Asia-Pacific found favour with the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

At the heart of Biden\u2019s foreign policy is a belief that a revival of multilateralism, which had been shunned by his predecessor Donald Trump, is required to manage the rising power of China.<\/p>\n

The OECD is distinct among multilateral institutions in having a membership composed of advanced and (relatively) democratic nations. It does not include either China or Russia.<\/p>\n

Former World Bank president and US trade representative Robert B. Zoellick argued that China should be encouraged to become a \u2018responsible stakeholder\u2019 in global organisations, following its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001.<\/p>\n

China has, indeed, taken on leadership positions in many international agencies since then, including United Nations agencies: the International Telecommunication Union, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN Industrial Development Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Last year, China won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n

However, its engagement has not brought any shift in its values or led to any moderation of the state-led capitalism which the US believes brings unfair advantage to Chinese enterprise.<\/p>\n

The CSIS argues in another report<\/a> that \u2018China\u2019s growing interest and influence in multilateral organizations may preclude accountability mechanisms\u2014specifically those associated with good development practice\u2014from operating transparently and appropriately.\u2019<\/p>\n

It suggests that the OECD, as an exclusive group of the world\u2019s most advanced free-market economies, has the opportunity to develop improved accountability standards.<\/p>\n

The OECD\u2019s outreach program includes China among five \u2018key partners\u2019 alongside India, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa. They have observer status on OECD committees and agree to be bound by OECD legal instruments, such as the anti-bribery convention.<\/p>\n

In principle, being a \u2018key partner\u2019 is a step along the pathway to membership. The OECD has expanded membership in recent years to include Latvia, Lithuania and Colombia. Brazil and Argentina are both in discussions about membership.<\/p>\n

There has been debate within the OECD over whether membership should be extended to China, given it is by some measures the world\u2019s largest economy and has committed to key OECD agreements.<\/p>\n

\u2018Within the OECD, advocates of inviting China to full membership argue that it would result in China committing to the practices of OECD countries and working further towards an open market structure while expanding access to the OECD for policy work in the region,\u2019 the CSIS says.<\/p>\n

However, membership requires commitment to the OECD values of\u00a0\u2018democracy based on the rule of law and human rights, and adherence to open and transparent market economy principles\u2019.<\/p>\n

The US and, it is to be presumed, Cormann, believe China falls far short of these minimum standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s economic embargo of Australia helped to persuade several OECD members, including the United States and Canada, to back Australia\u2019s Mathias Cormann as the organisation\u2019s new secretary general, according to the Center for Strategic and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":955,"featured_media":63961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,52,3012,1040],"class_list":["post-63958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-mathias-cormann","tag-oecd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat an Australian secretary-general of the OECD means for China | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-an-australian-secretary-general-of-the-oecd-means-for-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What an Australian secretary-general of the OECD means for China | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"China\u2019s economic embargo of Australia helped to persuade several OECD members, including the United States and Canada, to back Australia\u2019s Mathias Cormann as the organisation\u2019s new secretary general, according to the Center for Strategic and ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-an-australian-secretary-general-of-the-oecd-means-for-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-20T05:00:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-20T04:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-1279059198.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Uren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Uren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-an-australian-secretary-general-of-the-oecd-means-for-china\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-1279059198.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GettyImages-1279059198.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 08: Minister for Finance Senator Mathias Cormann during a press conference in the Main Committee room at Parliament House on October 08, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. 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