Business leaders from G20 countries meeting UK Ministers before London Summit on April 2nd
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Issued Date: 18 Mar 2009.
Business leaders from G20 countries around the
world have been meeting UK Government Ministers ahead of the London
Summit on April 2nd.
We had a useful and constructive discussion and urged the G20
to achieve three things:
1. Urgently renew the commitment to conclude the WTO Round.
This
is the best insurance policy the international community has against a
retreat to protectionism; a successful Doha Round alone would insure
against protectionist pressures that could cost the global economy as
much as $170bn a year.
2. To increase the supply of trade finance.
International
and government institutions need to step in to substitute private flows
of trade finance which have been drying up. If left unchecked, this
could restrain many hundreds of billions of dollars of global trade
over the next two years.
3. To pursue the need for anti-protectionism across the globe.
While
demand is a factor, protectionism could be playing a part in the fall
in trade. We therefore call on G20 to reconfirm and strengthen their
commitment not to bring in protectionist measures, reconfirming the
outcomes of the Washington summit, but focussing also on non tariff
measures such as subsidies, anti dumping action and licencing
restrictions. We also agreed it was important to make sure that the
monitoring of adherence to these commitments has realty.
As the
London Summit draws near, we believe that the response of the G20
leaders must be decisive and wide-ranging, in the interests of our
long-term prosperity.
Notes
1. The statement was
issued following a G20 Business Conference at Number Ten, Downing
Street on March 18th. The conference was hosted by Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, Skills Secretary John
Denham, Shriti Vadera, Mervyn Davies, Gareth Thomas, Ian Pearson, and
Lord Malloch-Brown.
2. Attending the conference were business
representatives from the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia,
Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, South Africa,
Turkey, Spain and the United States of America.
3. The CBI is the
UK's leading business organisation, speaking for some 240,000
businesses that together employ around a third of the private sector
workforce. With offices across the UK as well as in Brussels,
Washington and Beijing, the CBI coordinates British business
representation around the world.
About the Author
© Crown Copyright. Material taken
from the BERR-
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform replacing DTI
- Department for Trade and Industry. Reproduced under the terms and
conditions of the Click-Use Licence.
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2009-03-19 10:28:01 in Economic Articles
