ECONOMY
Documents & Texts from the White House
08 July 2008
G8 Declaration on the World Economy
Global Growth
1. We remain positive about the long-term resilience of our economies
and future global economic growth. Emerging market economies are still
growing strongly though our growth has moderated. However, the world
economy is now facing uncertainty and downside risks persist. Among
others, we express our strong concern about elevated commodity prices,
especially of oil and food, since they pose a serious challenge to
stable growth worldwide, have serious implications for the most
vulnerable, and increase global inflationary pressure. We are determined
to continuously take appropriate actions, individually and collectively,
to ensure stability and growth in our economies and globally.
Financial market conditions have improved somewhat in the past few
months. But serious strains still exist. While good progress has been
made in implementing the recommendations by the Financial Stability
Forum (FSF) in April, we urge private-sector players, national
supervisory authorities and international bodies to rapidly implement
all FSF recommendations to strengthen resilience of the financial
system. We underscore the importance of implementing the FSF report's
recommendations, as set out by the G8 Finance Ministers' Statement in
Osaka.
2. We are mindful of the inter-related nature of the issues
surrounding the world economy. We remain committed to promoting a smooth
adjustment of global imbalances through sound macroeconomic management
and structural policies in our countries as well as in emerging
economies and oil producing countries. In some emerging economies with
large and growing current account surpluses, it is crucial that their
effective exchange rates move so that necessary adjustment will occur.
We will promote continued consultation with our partner countries.
3. Globalization is a key driver for global economic growth and strong,
prosperous economies, supported by shared values of political democracy,
economic freedom and accountable institutions. Globalization and open
markets offer great opportunities for our societies, emerging economies
and developing countries. We are strongly committed to use these
opportunities for the benefit of our citizens and global growth. At the
same time, we will address various political, economic and social
challenges for extending globalization's benefits to all.
4. We invite international organizations, in particular the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization
(WTO), the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to enhance their
cooperation and to improve coherence.
Trade and Investment
5. We will resist protectionist pressures against international trade
and investment in all its manifestations.
A successful conclusion of an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive WTO
Doha agreement is critical to economic growth and development. Given the
crucial stage of negotiations, we reiterate our determination to work as
a matter of urgency toward the conclusion of the negotiations and call
on all WTO Members to make substantial contributions with a view to
establishing modalities for Agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural
Market Access) and achieving positive and tangible results on Services.
We welcome the convening of a ministerial meeting starting on 21 July.
We also support the holding of a Signaling Conference on Trade in
Services on the same occasion.
For the purpose of striking an overall balance, we stress the need for
making progress and delivering meaningful outcomes in all the areas
within the single undertaking.
6. Open trade and investment policies strengthen economies. All
countries should take steps to develop, maintain and promote regimes
that welcome foreign investment, guarantee non-discriminatory treatment
for foreign investment, and ensure freedom to transfer capital and
returns from investment. Any foreign investment restrictions should be
very limited, focusing primarily on national security concerns, and
should adhere to the principles of transparency and predictability,
proportionality, and accountability. Furthermore, we note the importance
of high standards of investment protection in international agreements
including fair and equitable treatment, prompt, adequate and effective
compensation in the event of expropriation, and access to international
arbitration to resolve disputes. We are equally committed to high
liberalization standards, such as national treatment and
most-favored-nation treatment, in bilateral agreements in relation to
investment.
7. Open and competitive capital markets can promote economic growth. We
encourage actions by financial markets regulators through various
approaches that can facilitate cross-border capital markets services,
including through the ongoing discussion of mutual recognition of
comparable securities regimes.
8. Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are increasingly important participants
in the world economy and we welcome recent commitments by some SWFs to
greater transparency. We encourage the work of the IMF and the OECD to
identify best practices for SWFs and recipient countries respectively,
and in this context, welcome the Declaration on Sovereign Wealth Funds
and Recipient Country Policies at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting.
9. Reaffirming our Heiligendamm commitments, we will promote Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) including through encouragement of voluntary
adherence to the relevant international instruments, standards and
principles by companies from all countries. We recognize and commend
efforts by private businesses for undertaking socially responsible
investments. We will encourage good corporate governance practices.
10. We welcome the joint statement of the G8 Business Summit held in
April, and are determined to enhance our cooperation with all
stakeholders including business communities, consumer associations,
workers and trade unions in tackling various challenges we face.
Energy Security
11. We reaffirm our commitment to the St. Petersburg Global Energy
Security Principles and the implementation of its Plan of Action and
invite other countries to embrace these Principles. We therefore
compiled national reports, with the assistance of the International
Energy Agency (IEA), evaluating our efforts to adhere to those
principles and welcome the corresponding overview provided by the IEA.
We are committed to updating our reports for 2009 Summit.
12. We have strong concerns about the sharp rise in oil prices, which
poses risks to the global economy. Concerted efforts are needed to
address the underlying causes for the benefit of all. On the supply
side, production and refining capacities should be increased in the
short term. Joint efforts are also necessary to expand upstream and
downstream investment in the medium term. Oil-producing countries should
ensure transparent and stable investment environments conducive to
increasing the production capacity needed to meet rising global demand.
On the demand side, it is important to make further efforts to improve
energy efficiency as well as pursue energy diversification.
In reconfirming the shared interest and responsibility of energy
producing and consuming countries in promoting global energy security,
we will enhance further dialogue and partnership. In this regard, as a
follow-up to the recent Jeddah Energy Meeting, we look forward to the
meeting to be held in London later this year. Also, we encourage major
countries that are not IEA members to deepen their dialogue with the
IEA, including through active participation in IEA programs, as
appropriate.
13. To enhance energy security, we propose holding an energy forum to
focus on energy efficiency and new technologies, which could also
contribute to dialogue between producers and consumers.
14. Greater transparency will lead to better functioning energy markets
and hence a better balance between supply and demand. Therefore, we need
to improve collection and timely reporting of market data on oil and
develop shared analysis of oil market trends and outlook. We therefore
continue to strongly support the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) as a
significant contribution in the efforts for information sharing
including on oil stocks among energy producers and consumers. We support
the efforts of the JODI partner organizations including the
International Energy Forum (IEF) to realize further progress of JODI in
terms of quality, completeness and timeliness of information. We stress
the importance of energy markets which send undistorted price signals
and are free from any political pressure. We welcome the G8 Finance
Ministers' request to the IMF and the IEA to jointly carry out further
analysis of real and financial factors behind the recent surge in oil
and commodity prices, their volatility, and the effects on the global
economy. We also welcome the efforts taken by relevant national
authorities for increased transparency of commodity futures markets and
encourage further cooperation between them.
Raw Materials
15. To promote improved transparency, accountability, good governance
and sustainable economic growth in the extractive sector, and to address
the natural resource dimensions of armed conflict and post-conflict
situations, we:
(a) continue to support initiatives such as the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and call for its full
implementation and for candidate countries to complete the validation
process in a timely manner. We encourage emerging economies and their
companies to support the initiative;
(b) promote improved resource management including fiscal
transparency and legislative oversight by resource-rich countries
through supporting international financial institutions' efforts to
develop international standards and codes to be voluntarily adopted by
those countries, and technical assistance, as appropriate; and
(c) support international efforts to respond more effectively to
the natural resource dimensions of conflict and post-conflict
situations, and would welcome additional analysis on the issue by the
OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the United Nations
Secretary General, and the World Bank.
16. We affirm the importance of open raw materials markets as the most
efficient mechanism for resources allocation. We call on our trading
partners to strictly comply with WTO rules and to enhance the
transparency and predictability of their measures in this area.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
17. Effective promotion and protection of IPR are critical to the
development of creative products, technologies and economies. We will
advance existing anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiatives through,
inter alia, promoting information exchange systems amongst our
authorities, as well as developing non-binding Standards to be Employed
by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at the World Customs
Organization. We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish
a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of
this year. We will promote practical cooperation between our countries
to develop tools to combat new techniques in counterfeiting and piracy
and spread best practices. We reaffirm our commitment on government use
of software in full compliance with the relevant international
agreements and call on other countries to follow our commitment.
18. Firmly believing that an efficient and well-functioning IP system
benefits countries at all stages of development, we:
(a) reaffirm the importance of global patent harmonization and
expanding international patent collaboration, including accelerated
discussions on the Substantive Patent Law Treaty; and
(b) welcome the progress achieved in the G8 technical assistance
pilot plans as well as the launch of additional pilot plans and joint
outreach programs for public awareness in these countries.
Corruption
19. We call for the ratification of the United Nations Convention
against Corruption (UNCAC) by all countries and a strong and consistent
follow-up of the Bali Conference by ensuring effective implementation of
UNCAC, including the development of a review mechanism. Reaffirming our
previous commitments, we will redouble our efforts to deny safe havens
through our national laws to public officials found guilty of corruption
and strengthen international cooperation on asset recovery including
supporting initiatives of relevant international organizations such as
the Stolen Asset Recovery(StAR) Initiative promoted by the World Bank
and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). We also recognize
the importance of technical assistance to partner countries in their own
efforts to implement the Convention.
We will also strengthen enforcement of the OECD Convention on Combating
Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business
Transactions with the commitment to continue effective monitoring
through the implementation of a rigorous and permanent peer review
mechanism and call for accession to the Convention by emerging
countries. We endorsed an enhanced accountability report detailing
actions of each G8 member to implement the anticorruption commitments we
have undertaken in the G8, and agreed to update it annually.
Abuses of the Financial System
20. We urge all countries that have not yet fully implemented the OECD
standards of transparency and effective exchange of information in tax
matters to do so without further delay, and encourage the OECD to
strengthen its work on tax evasion and report back in 2010.
Heiligendamm Process
21. We welcome the progress of the Heiligendamm Process, the
topic-driven political dialogue on an equal footing between the members
of the G8 and major emerging economies to enhance mutual confidence and
understanding and to develop a true partnership focusing on investment,
innovation, energy efficiency and development. We look forward to
discussing these issues reflected in the interim report with the leaders
of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa on 9 July. We reiterate
our commitment to the Process and look forward to receiving a
comprehensive concluding report at the G8 Summit in 2009. We appreciate
the OECD for providing organizational and technical support for the
dialogue.
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