G20 leaders under pressure to succeed
By Kelly Olsen |
November 4, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GROUP of 20 leaders know they must achieve "concrete agreements" including goals for reducing current account and trade gaps at next week's summit or risk having their leadership of the world economy called into question, South Korea's president said yesterday.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the group of leading rich and developing nations met last month in South Korea ahead of the summit scheduled for November 11-12. They vowed to avoid using their currencies as trade weapons and promised to come up with a way to measure the reduction of destabilizing trade gaps.
The G20 includes wealthy nations such as the United States, Japan and Germany and developing countries including China, Brazil and India. It has taken over leadership of the world economy since the 2008 financial crisis led developing nations to demand more of a say. The group accounts for about 85 percent of the global economy.
"All of these leaders around the world understand the importance of coming up with concrete agreements and translating this into action," summit host and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told reporters.
How they perform "directly relates to the legitimacy and the effectiveness" of the group, he said.
"Because if ... the G20 is unable to deliver on its promises, then many people, especially the skeptics, will question the viability and the legitimacy of the G20."
At the finance meeting last month, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had pushed in a letter for a commitment to polices that would cut current account and trade imbalances "below a specified share" of gross domestic product "over the next few years."
The G20 agreed that such imbalances would be "assessed against indicative guidelines to be agreed," reflecting the opposition of some export-reliant countries such as Japan.Lee was optimistic that G20 leaders can make progress on the issue of targets.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the group of leading rich and developing nations met last month in South Korea ahead of the summit scheduled for November 11-12. They vowed to avoid using their currencies as trade weapons and promised to come up with a way to measure the reduction of destabilizing trade gaps.
The G20 includes wealthy nations such as the United States, Japan and Germany and developing countries including China, Brazil and India. It has taken over leadership of the world economy since the 2008 financial crisis led developing nations to demand more of a say. The group accounts for about 85 percent of the global economy.
"All of these leaders around the world understand the importance of coming up with concrete agreements and translating this into action," summit host and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told reporters.
How they perform "directly relates to the legitimacy and the effectiveness" of the group, he said.
"Because if ... the G20 is unable to deliver on its promises, then many people, especially the skeptics, will question the viability and the legitimacy of the G20."
At the finance meeting last month, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had pushed in a letter for a commitment to polices that would cut current account and trade imbalances "below a specified share" of gross domestic product "over the next few years."
The G20 agreed that such imbalances would be "assessed against indicative guidelines to be agreed," reflecting the opposition of some export-reliant countries such as Japan.Lee was optimistic that G20 leaders can make progress on the issue of targets.
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