Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met virtually with the Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness and UN Secretary-General António Guterres Monday with the goal of convening a meeting of world leaders, to urge the international community to take additional and urgent action, to ensure a robust recovery after COVID-19.

Trudeau says several countries have already defaulted, a significant amount of emerging economies face serious fiscal challenges, and many developing countries are in debt distress.  “Building back better from this pandemic means creating good jobs, and growing clean resilient economies.  It means ensuring that the legacy of this crisis isn’t rolling back progress for anyone.”

Trudeau says they are focused on three areas around the globe including liquidity, with countries needing access to cash-flow to support their citizens, a common framework needed to deal with crippling debt levels, and access and eligibility to debt for countries that are extremely vulnerable to the pandemic, including ones reliant on tourism.  “It is part of our own domestic self interest to see countries around the world succeed, through this, so that we can all get back to the global economy, as best as we possibly can, in a positive way.”

Trudeau says with the G7 and G20 meeting soon, all eyes should not just be on vaccination challenges, but to the economic challenges around the world.  He states real action needs to be taken by leading countries around the world to recognize that is not just in the global interest, but their own interest, to ensure a more equitable global recovery.

According to the UN there was a 4.3 percent drop in global GDP in 2020, the first increase in extreme poverty since 1998, and the equivalent of 255 million jobs lost last year.