Washington (AFP)

Leaders of industrialized countries, in Washington for IMF, G20 and G7 Finance meetings, on Wednesday pledged to tackle logistical challenges that are creating shortages of staples, fueling inflation and slowing growth global.

Supply problems, caused by a rebound in demand for logistics transport with the post-pandemic recovery combined with labor shortages, affect many countries around the world and have led the International Monetary Fund to revise downward. growth forecasts for the United States, China, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The disruption of supply chains is such that US President Joe Biden has pushed the port of Los Angeles, where 40% of containers destined for the United States arrive, and the American dockers' union, to agree to work more nights and weekends. -ends to reduce queues that slow down the delivery of many products.

Several companies, including Walmart, FedEx and UPS, have also pledged to stay longer at night to speed up the movement of their containers out of ports.

These measures "will be a game-changer," commented Joe Biden, adding that the United States "should never again be unable to manufacture" the products it needs because of shortages.

"The bottlenecks on raw materials, semiconductors and recruitment difficulties in the labor market" will weigh on the growth dynamic "in the months and years to come", had lamented earlier the minister French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, stressing that this subject was one of the major concerns of the meetings this week in the American capital.

"The answer lies in one word: independence," he added, referring to the current dependence of Western industries on Asia.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire in Washington, October 13, 2021 on the occasion of the fall meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Jim WATSON AFP

Along with energy prices, this issue was at the heart of the G7 and G20 meetings.

British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak called on the G7 Finance, which he chaired until the end of the year, to take global action on this crisis.

While his country is particularly affected by these dysfunctions, further aggravated by Brexit, Mr. Sunak pleads for better "coordination" to make supply chains "more resilient".

"Our estimates suggest that 8.5% of global container transport is blocked in or around ports, double that of January," said David Malpass, president of the World Bank.

These disruptions drive up the cost of goods as well as shipping costs, and he says some of these increases "will not be transient."

- Energetic transition -

Restoring supply chains "will take time" given the scale of the pandemic, Italian Central Bank Governor Ignazio Visco stressed during a G20 press conference including Italy in the presidency.

A container ship of the MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) company awaiting unloading of goods in the port of Los Angeles (California) on October 6, 2021 Frederic J. BROWN AFP

According to him, in the months to come, "the bottlenecks (...) will fade and prices will decrease".

He admitted, however, that there was "debate" within the G20 on the possibility that, for certain products, supply problems could become more permanent.

"We have to understand if there are more structural factors," he noted.

Many products are scarce in stores in the United States, from bicycles to tennis balls to cell phones.

There are many causes of the problem.

Production is still regularly disrupted by peaks of contamination since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic while demand is strong.

In addition, many companies are struggling to recruit for critical positions in the supply chain, from material handlers to truck drivers.

A major source of concern for governments: these disturbances are fueling prices, especially those of energy.

"Many price pressures are transitory," said Vitor Gaspar, director of the IMF's public finance department, however, recommending governments not to resort to generalized subsidies which are "very expensive and benefit rich households".

In addition, "they lead to very negative incentives for the environment" by supporting the consumption of polluting energies, underlined Paulo Medas, one of the IMF officials.

"We need to accelerate the energy transition to become less dependent on fossil fuels, it is the only long-term solution" to the problems of price volatility, Bruno Le Maire stressed on Wednesday.

© 2021 AFP