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Draft Communiqué: Birmingham Summit (G8)

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Promoting sustainable growth on the global economy

Growth, employabiddty and inclusion

Combating drugs and international crime

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2. Of the major challenges facing the world on the threshold of the 21st century, this Summit has focused on three:

• sustainable economic growth and development throughout the world in a way which, while safeguarding the environment and promoting good governance, will enable developing countries to grow faster and reduce poverty, restore growth to emerging Asian economies, and sustain the liberalisation of trade in goods and services and of investment in a stale international economy;

• lasting growth in our own economies in which all can participate, creating jobs and combating social exclusion;

• drugs and transitional crime which threaten both to sap this growth and to damage the lives of individuals in all countries of the world.

Our aim in each case has been to agree to concrete actions to tackle these challenges.

Promoting sustainable growth on the global economy

4. Overall global prospects remain good. However, since we last met, the prospects have been temporarily set back by the financial turmoil in Asia. We confirm our strong support for the efforts to re-establish stability and growth in the region and for the key role of the international financial institutions. Successful recovery in Asia will bring important benefits for us all. Therefore:

• We strongly support reforms underway in the affected countries. With full implementation of programmes agreed with the IMF we are confident that stability can be restored. The underlying factors that helped Asia achieve impressive growth in the past remain in place. Implementation of agreed policies together with the action taken in other countries to avoid spillover effects provide the basis for a firm recovery in the region and renewed global stability.
• We believe a key lesson from events in Asia is the importance of sound economic policy, transparency and good governance. These improve the functioning of financial markets, the quality of economic policy making and public understanding and support for sound policies, and thereby enhance public confidence. It is also important to ensure that the private sector plays a timely and appropriate role in crisis resolution.
• We are conscious of the serious impact of the crisis in the region on the poor and most vulnerable. Economic and financial reform needs to be matched with actions and policies by the countries concerned to help protect these groups from the worst effects of the crisis. We welcome the support for this by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and bilateral donors and the increased emphasis on social expenditure in programmes agreed by the IMF.
• We are concerned that the difficulties could trigger short term protectionist forces both in the region and in our own countries. Such an approach would be highly damaging to the prospects for recovery. We resolve to keep our own markets open and call on other countries to do the same. We emphasise the importance for the affected countries of continued opening of their markets to investment and trade.

5. Looking ahead to the WTO's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the GATT next week, we:

• reaffirm our strong commitment to continued trade and investment liberalisation within the multilateral framework of the WTO;

• call on all countries to open their markets further and resist protectionism;

• strongly support the widening of the WTO's membership in accordance with established WTO rules and practises;

• In order to sustain broad public support for the multilateral trading system, we urge the WTO to adopt the most open, accessible and transparent dispute resolution process feasible, to enhance the WTO's effectiveness and credibility. [Not yet discussed. US to circulate reasoning].

• reaffirm our support for efforts to complete existing multilateral commitments, push forward the built-in agenda and tackle new areas in pursuing broad-based multilateral liberalisation;

• confirm our wish to see emerging and developing economies participate fully and effectively in the multilateral trade system; commit ourselves to deliver early, tangible benefits from this participation to help generate growth and alleviate poverty in these countries; and undertake to help least developed countries by:
  • [providing additional duty-free access for their goods, if necessary on an autonomous basis],
  • ensuring that rules of origin are transparent,
  • assisting efforts to promote regional integration,
  • helping them improve access to their markets for investment and capital flows.

6. The last point highlights the most difficult challenge the world faces: to help the [poorer developing/least developed] countries especially in Africa, develop their capacities, enabling them to Integrate better into the global economy and to benefit from the opportunities offered by globalisation. We are encouraged by the new spirit of hope and progress in Africa. The challenges are acute, but confidence that they can be overcome is growing. [We are committed to a real and effective partnership in support of these countries' efforts to reform, to develop, and to reach the internationally-agreed goals for economic and social development, as set out in the OECD's 21st Century Strategy. We shall therefore work with them to achieve at least primary education for children everywhere, and to reduce drastically child and maternal mortality and the proportion of the world's population living in extreme poverty.]

7. To help achieve these goals, we intend to implement fully the vision we set out at Lyon and Denver. [ On a basis of fair burden sharing] we therefore pledge ourselves:

• to provide effective support for the efforts of these countries to build democracy and good governance, stronger civil society and greater transparency, and to take action against corruption, for example by making every effort to ratify the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention by the end of 1998;

• to mobilise resources for development in support of reform programmes, including negotiating a prompt and adequate replenishment of the soft loan arm of the World Bank (IDA 12) [ as well as providing adequate resources for a renewed Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility of the IMF and for the African Development Fund];

• to work to focus existing bilateral loan and investment agency assistance in support of sound reforms, including the development of basic social infrastructure and measures to improve trade and investment;

• to work within the OECD on a recommendation on untying aid to the least developed countries with a view to proposing a text in 1999;

• to support the speedy and determined extension of debt relief to more countries, within the terms of the Heavily Indebted Countries (HIPC) initiative agreed by the IFIs and Paris Club. We encourage all eligible countires to takre the policy measures needed to embark on the process as soon as possible, so that all can be in the process by the year 2000. We will work with the international institutions and other creditors to ensure that when they qualify, countries get the relief they need to secure a lasting exit from their debt problems. We expect the World Bank to join the financial effort to help the African Development Bank finance its contribution to the HIPC initiative. [Those countries who have not already done so should also forgive aid-related bilateral debt or take comparable action for reforming HIPCs];

• to enhance mutual cooperation on infectious and parasitic diseases and support the World Health Organisation's efforts in those areas. We support the new initiative to "Roll Back Malaria" to relieve the suffering experienced by hundreds of millions of people, and significantly reduce the death rate from malaria by 2010. We will also continue our efforts to reduce the global scourge of AIDS through vaccine development, preventative programmes and appropriate therapy. We have taken note of the French proposal of a "Therapeutic Solidarity Initiative" and recent World Bank proposals on AIDS and ask our national experts to study them further.

8. We see a particular need to strengthen Africa's ability to prevent and ease conflict by helping to establish Africa-based institutions to provide training in conflict prevention and peacekeeping; and to respond to the exceptional needs of post-conflict countries in an appropriate way they re-build their economic and social systems.

9. A crucial factor in ensuring sustainable development and global growth is an efficient energy market. We therefore endorse the results of our Energy Ministers' Meeting in Moscow in April. We shall continue cooperation on energy matters in the G8 framework. We recognise the importance of soundly based political and economic stability in the regions of energy production and transit. With the objective of ensuring reliable, economic, safe and environmentally-sound energy supplies to meet the projected increase in demand, we commit ourselves to encourage the development of energy markets. Liberalisation and restructuring to encourage efficiency and competition should be supported by transparent and non-discriminatory national legislative and regulatory frameworks with a view to establishing equitable treatment for both government and private sectors as well as domestic and foreign entities. These are essential to attract the new investment which our energy sectors need. We also recognise the importance of international co-operation to develop economically viable international energy transmission networks. We shall pursue this co-operation bilaterally and multilaterally, including within the framework and principles of the Energy Charter Treaty.

10. Considering the new competitive pressures on our electric power sectors, we reaffirm the commitment we made at the 1996 Moscow Summit to the safe operation of nuclear power plants and the achievement of high safety standards worldwide, [and attach the greatest importance to the full implementation of the Nuclear Safety Account grant agreements.]

11. The greatest environmental threat to our future prosperity remains climate change. We confirm our determination to address it, and welcome the results of our Environment Ministers' meeting at Leeds Castle. The adoption at Kyoto of a Protocol with legally binding targets was a historic turning point in our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We confirm our intention to sign the Protocol within the next year and resolve to make an urgent start on the further work that is necessary to ratify and make Kyoto a reality. To this end:

• We will each undertake domestically the steps necessary to reduce significantly greenhouse gas emissions.

• As the Kyoto protocol says, to supplement domestic actions, we will work further on flexible, mechanisms such as international market-based emissions trading, joint implementation and the clean development mechanism, and on sinks. We aim to draw up rules and principles that will ensure an enforceable, accountable, verifiable, open and transparent trading system and an effective compliance regime.

• We will work together and with others to prepare for the Buenos Aires meeting of COP4 this autumn. We will also look at ways of working with all countries to increase global participation in establishing targets to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will aim to reach agreement as soon as possible on how the clean development mechanism can work, including how it might best draw on the experience and expertise of other existing institutions, including the Global Environment Facility. We look forward to increasing participation from developing countries, which are likely to be most affected by climate change and whose share of emissions is growing. We will work together with developing countries to achieve voluntary efforts and commitments, appropriate to their national circumstances and development needs. We shall also enhance our efforts with developing countries to promote technological development.

11a. The recent devastating forest fires in south-east Asia and the Amazon, threatening not only our environment but even economic growth and political stability, illustratae the crucial importance of global cooperation and a strong overall framework designed to manage and conserve forests. We strongly support the work under way to that end under the auspices of the United Nations, and by the year 2000 we will each report progress on implementation of our own action plans pursuant to the G8 Action Programme published last week. We will work with all countries and interested environmental groups to build consensus on an international agreement with appropriately high standards.

Growth, employability and inclusion

13. We discussed and welcomed the Action Plans we have each produced as agreed at Kobe, revised to show how the seven principles of the London Conference are being implemented. By sharing national experiences and best practice in this area we can improve our policies and responses. We underlined the importance of involvement of employers and unions in securing successful implementation of these plans.

[UK to circulate draft text and key action points next week.]

14. We confirmed our determination to introduce the measures set out in our Action Plans and to pursue the concept of active ageing. They will help generate soundly-based and equitable growth. We are also willing to share our principles and experiences, including in the relevant international institutions particularly the ILO, OECD and the IFIs, to help foster growth, jobs and inclusion not only in the G8 but throughout the world. We will also work with such interantional institutions to promote internationaly recognised core labour standards.

Combating drugs and international crime

16. Such crimes pose a threat not only to our own citizens and their communities, through lives blighted by drugs and societies living in fear of organised crime; but also a global threat which can undermine the democratic and economic basis of societies through the investment of illegal money by international cartels, corruption, a weakening of institutions and a loss of confidence in the rule of law.

17. To fight this threat, international co-operation is indispensable. We ourselves, particularly since the Lyon summit in 1996, have sought ways to improve that co-operation. Much has already been achieved. We acknowledge the work being done in the UN, the EU and by other regional groupings. We welcome the steps undertaken by the G8 Lyon Group to implement its 40 Recommendations on transnational organised crime and the proposals G8 Justice and Interior Ministers announced at their meeting in Washington last December. By working together, our countries are helping to catch criminals and break up cartels. But more needs to be done. There must be no safe havens either for criminals or for their money.

18. We have therefore agreed a number of further actions to tackle this threat more effectively:

• We fully support efforts to negotiate within the next two years an effective United Nations convention against transnational organised crime that will provide our law enforcement authorities with the tools they need.

• We agree to implement rapidly the ten principles and ten point action plan agreed by our Ministers on high tech crime. These include urgent contacts with industry to foster cooperation on effective means of combating crime; and agreement on steps towards a legal framework for obtaining, presenting and preserving electronic data as evidence, while maintaining appropriate privacy protection. This will help us combat a wide range of crime, including abuse of the internet and other new technologies.

• We welcomed the FATF decision to continue and enlarge its work to combat money-laundering in partnership with regional groupings. We will consider high-level meetings to discuss efforts to combat transnational crime, with special emphasis on money laundering and financial crime. We agreed to establish Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) where we do not already have them, in line with our national constitutions and legal systems, to collect and analyse information on those engaged in money laundering and liase with the equivalent agencies in partner countries. We agreed on principles and the need for adequate legislation to facilitate asset confiscation from convicted criminals, including ways to help each other trace, freeze and confiscate those assets, [and where possible, in accordance with national legislation, share seized assets with other nations.]

• We are deeply concerned by all forms of trafficking of human beings including the smuggling of migrants. We commit ourselves to develop a multidisciplinary and comprehensive strategy, including principles and an action plan for future cooperation amongst ourselves and with third countries, including countries of origin, transit and destination, to tackle this problem. We consider the future comprehensive UN organised crime convention a key instrument for this purpose.

• We endorse joint law enforcement action against organised crime and welcome the cooperation between competent agencies in tackling criminal networks. We agree to pursue similar action in other areas, particularly in dealing with major smuggling routes and targeting specific forms of f financial fraud.

• We endorse the Lyon Group's principles and action plan to combat illegal manufacturing and trafficking of firearms. We welcome its agreement to work towards the elaboration of a binding international legal instrument in the context of the UN transnational organised crime convention.

19. We urge the Lyon Group to intensify its ongoing work and present a report on the progress made at our next Summit. We also welcome the steps agreed by our Environment Ministers on 5 April to combat environmental crime.

20. There is a strong link between drugs and wider international and domestic crime. We therefore welcome the forthcoming UNGASS on drugs. This should signal the international community's determination to develop a comprehensive strategy to tackle all aspects of the drugs problem. For its part, the G8 is committed to partnership and shared responsibility in the international community to combat illicit drugs. This should include reinforced co-operation to curb illicit trafficking in narcotics and chemical precursors, action to reduce demand in our countries, and support for a global approach to eradicating illicit crops. We welcome the UNDCP's recent initiatives which imply the preparation of alternative and reliable development programmes and benchmarks within existing funding arrangements.

Year 2000 Bug

23. We accepted the invitation of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany to meet again next year in Köln on 18-20 June.

April 27, 1998 1:22 PM
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