Globalisation

Key Meetings of World Leaders – G8 and G20

World trade can not happen without rules – someone needs to decide what will be considered “fair”, and what will be considered “unfair”. While the policing of world trade is largely left to the WTO, there are also regular meetings of international leaders which are highly influential. Due to the incredible power which is maintained by the people who attend these meetings, they have also attracted a lot of attention from the anti-globalisation movement.

Although there are many such meetings, there are some which attract more attention than others. Two that you should know about are the G8 Summit, and the G20 Summit.

The Group of Eight

The Group of Eight (or G8) is an annual meeting of the leaders of eight of the largest economies in the world. The gathering grew out of a more informal arrangement which was initiated after the oil shock of the 1970s. At that time, the leaders of six of the large economies met in Washington to talk about the way in which future trade shocks could be avoided. With a subsequent invitation to two more countries, the current membership of the G8 was completed in 1975. The member countries are:

The United States of America
Russia
Canada
Germany
France
Italy
Japan
The United Kingdom

In addition, the European Union is also represented in the group. The most recent member of the group is Russia, which only formally became a member in 1997 at the request of US President Bill Clinton. Despite this, Russia’s association with the meeting has been evident since its inception.

The group does not maintain a formal secretariat like the World Trade Organisation does, nor does it have an official “leadership”. Each year the meeting is held in one of the eight countries, and the host country will act as the chair of the meeting. For example, in 2007 the G8 meetings were chaired by Germany, and in 2008 the chair will be Japan.

The G8 summit has attracted some controversy in recent times. For example, at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles (Scotland), a great deal of attention was focused on trying to achieve progress in regards to climate change, and also debt relief for highly impoverished third world nations. All of the members signed a document saying that the evidence in regards to climate change due to pollution levels was overwhelming, and as such funds must be directed towards a resolution. In addition, billions of dollars in third world debt was cancelled as a result of this gathering. Despite this, critics argue that the resolutions passed by the G8 summit represent “too little, too late”.

The Group of Twenty

The G20 group is perhaps not quite as controversial as the G8, but it is certainly worthy of your consideration. The key reason for this is that Australia is a founding member of the G20. It is an annual gathering of nineteen of the world’s largest economies, and also the European Union. The first meeting of the G20 was held in 1999.

The G20 has committed itself to the following economic goals:

The microeconomic reform of their economies, including ongoing privatisation of government controlled businesses, and the deregulation of important national industries.
The increasing flexibility of the way in which the labour market in each country is able to operate.
A guarantee of personal property rights, including the right to reasonable protection of intellectual property.
Improvements in the way in which trade agreements are finalised, including the pursuit of free trade through the WTO, and also through bilateral free trade agreements.
The creation of an international business environment which encourages the movement of international capital.

The G20 met in Melbourne in 2006. At that time, a strong police presence was unable to stop large groups of protestors from making their presence felt in the central business district. This reaction is now expected each time a meeting of international leaders meets to discuss these important issues. We should take a moment to consider their point of view.

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