G20 trade ministers agree joint statement on food security, fail on other issues

The split outcome is the signal: consensus still holds on food security, where the language targets weaponization, but the harder structural files — overcapacity, forced labor, MFN reform — produced no documents at all. That the MFN principle drew majority defense as the multilateral system's cornerstone suggests appetite for reworking core WTO rules remains thin even among major economies. China's framing of itself as a consensus-builder is worth reading alongside that resistance. Whether the food-security statement translates into anything operational, and whether the stalled files resurface at later G20 gatherings, is the open question.