{"id":249135,"date":"2020-03-19T19:18:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T23:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=249135"},"modified":"2020-03-19T19:18:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T23:18:36","slug":"un-chief-world-at-war-with-a-virus-recession-near-certain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/19\/un-chief-world-at-war-with-a-virus-recession-near-certain\/","title":{"rendered":"UN chief: World at war with a virus, recession near certain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.N. chief said \u201cpeople are suffering, sick and scared\u201d and stressed that current responses by individual countries will not address \u201cthe global scale and complexity of the crisis.\u201d (File Photo U.S. Mission Photo by Eric Bridiers\/Wikimedia commons, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TANZANIA, Tanzania \u2014 U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday the world \u201cis at war with a virus\u201d and warned that \u201ca global recession \u2014 perhaps of record dimensions \u2014 is a near certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.N. chief said \u201cpeople are suffering, sick and scared\u201d and stressed that current responses by individual countries will not address \u201cthe global scale and complexity of the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a moment that demands co-ordinated, decisive, and innovative policy action from the world’s leading economies,\u201d Guterres told reporters from U.N. headquarters in New York. \u201cWe must recognize that the poorest countries and most vulnerable \u2014 especially women \u2014 will be the hardest hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The secretary-general welcomed next week’s emergency summit of leaders of the Group of 20 major economic powers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he will participate with the message that this is an unprecedented situation which requires creativity \u2014 \u201cand the magnitude of the response must match its scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID-19 is killing people, as well as attacking the real economy at its core \u2014 trade, supply chains, businesses, jobs,\u201d Guterres said. \u201cEntire countries and cities are in lock down. Borders are closing. Companies are struggling to stay in business and families are simply struggling to stay afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Labor Organization just reported that workers around the world could lose as much as $3.4 trillion in income by the end of this year, he said.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general said world leaders have the opportunity to steer the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic \u201ctoward a more sustainable and inclusive path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut poorly co-ordinated policies risk locking in \u2014 or even worsening \u2014 already unsustainable inequalities, reversing hard-won development gains and poverty reduction,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Guterres called for global action to tackle the health emergency, the social impact of the pandemic, and the economic response and recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we let the virus spread like wildfire \u2014 especially in the most vulnerable regions of the world — it would kill millions of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we need to immediately move away from a situation where each country is undertaking its own health strategies to one that ensures, in full transparency, a co-ordinated global response, including helping countries that are less prepared to tackle the crisis,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general said governments must give strongest support to the global effort to fight the virus led by the U.N. World Health Organization, including responding to its $675 million appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth spending must be scaled up right away to meet urgent needs and the surge in demand \u2014 expanding testing, bolstering facilities, supporting health care workers, and ensuring adequate supplies \u2014 with full respect for human rights and without stigma,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n

Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, he said, banks must be part of the solution and \u201cthe liquidity of the financial system must be guaranteed, and banks must use their resilience to support their customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres said the focus must be on the most vulnerable people \u2014 low-wage workers, small and medium enterprises \u2014 and \u201cthat means wage support, insurance, social protection, preventing bankruptcies and job loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat also means designing fiscal and monetary responses to ensure that the burden does not fall on those who can least afford it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we must refrain from the temptation of resorting to protectionism. This is the time to dismantle trade barriers and re-establish supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres said resources need to get into the hands of people, noting that some countries are adopting cash transfers and universal income.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to take it to the next level to ensure support reaches those entirely dependent on the informal economy and countries less able to respond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general stressed that remittances \u201care a lifeline in the developing world \u2014 especially now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said countries have committed to reducing remittance fees to 3 per cent, but the COVID-19 crisis requires that they get as close to zero as possible.<\/p>\n

G20 leaders have also waived interest payments to protect their own citizens and economies, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must apply that same logic to the most vulnerable countries in our global village and alleviate their debt burden,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general was asked where the money was going to come from to fund his ambitious program, given that many G20 countries are dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that whenever there is a problem in the banking system, trillions appear to solve the problems of the banks,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd these trillions must appear now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments, central banks must work to guarantee that there is liquidity in the economy but also that funds are mobilized to those that are most in need,\u201d both individuals and the poorest countries, the U.N. chief said.<\/p>\n

Guterres stressed the need for solidarity saying political, religious and community leaders must convey a very strong message that the fight against COVID-19 must be done together \u2014 and that \u201cit’s very important to fight fake news\u201d and social media campaigns that try to spread fear, antagonism and create divisions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TANZANIA, Tanzania \u2014 U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday the world \u201cis at war with a virus\u201d and warned that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":205433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249136,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249135\/revisions\/249136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}