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G-8 Communique
Birmingham, England
May 18, 1998
1. We, the Heads of State or Government of eight major
industrialised democracies and the President of the European
Commission, met in Birmingham to discuss issues affecting people
in our own and other countries. In a world of increasing
globalisation we are ever more interdependent. Our challenge is
to build on and sustain the process of globalisation and to
ensure that its benefits are spread more widely to improve the
quality of life of people everywhere. We must also ensure that
our institutions and structures keep pace with the rapid
technological and economic changes under way in the world.
2. Of the major challenges facing the world on the threshold
of the 21st century, this Summit has focused on three:
- achieving 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 stable international economy;
- building lasting growth in our own economies in which all
can participate, creating jobs and combating social exclusion;
- tackling drugs and transnational crime which threaten to
sap this growth, undermine the rule of law and damage the lives
of individuals in all countries of the world.
Our aim in each case has been to agree concrete actions to
tackle these challenges.
Promoting sustainable growth in the global economy
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3. In an interdependent world, we must work to build
sustainable economic growth in all countries. Global integration
is a process we have encouraged and shaped and which is
producing clear benefits for people throughout the world. We
welcomed the historic decisions taken on 2 May on the
establishment of European Economic and Monetary Union. We look
forward to a successful EMU which contributes to the health of
the world economy. The commitment in European Union countries to
sound fiscal policies and continuing structural reform is key to
the long-term success of EMU, and to improving the prospects for
growth and employment.
4. Overall global prospects remain good. However, since we
last met, the prospects have been temporarily set back by the
financial crisis 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 under way in the affected
countries and welcome the progress so far achieved. 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 by ourselves and 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 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 practices;
- agree to promote public support for the multilateral system
by encouraging greater transparency in the WTO, as in other
international organisations;
- 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 their markets become more attractive and accessible
to investment and capital flows.
6. The last point highlights one of the most difficult
challenges the world faces: to enable the poorer developing
countries, especially in Africa, develop their capacities,
integrate better into the global economy and thereby 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 commit ourselves 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. We therefore pledge
ourselves to a shared international effort:
- 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 recognise the importance of substantial levels of
development assistance and to mobilise resources for development
in support of reform programmes, fulfilling our responsibilities
and in a spirit of burden-sharing, 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
the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility of the IMF and for
the African Development Fund;
- to work to focus existing bilateral aid 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 Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative agreed by the
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Paris Club. We
welcome the progress achieved with six countries already
declared eligible for HIPC debt relief and a further two
countries likely to be declared shortly. We encourage all
eligible countries to take 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, including interim
relief measures whenever necessary, to secure a lasting exit
from their debt problems. We expect the World Bank to join the
future financial effort to help the African Development Bank
finance its contribution to the HIPC initiative;
- to call on those countries who have not already done so to
forgive aid-related bilateral debt or take comparable action for
reforming least developed countries;
- 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, preventive
programmes and appropriate therapy, and by our continued support
for UNAIDS. We welcome the French proposal for a "Therapeutic
Solidarity Initiative" and other proposals for the prevention
and treatment of AIDS, and request our experts to examine
speedily the feasibility of their implementation.
8. We see a particular need to strengthen Africa's ability
to prevent and ease conflict, as highlighted in the U.N.
Secretary-General's recent report. We will look for ways to
enhance the capacity of Africa-based institutions to provide
training in conflict prevention and peacekeeping. We also need
to consider further ways to respond to the exceptional needs of
poor post-conflict countries as they rebuild their political,
economic and social systems, in a manner consistent with
democratic values and respect for basic human rights. In
addition to immediate humanitarian assistance:
- we recognise the need for technical and financial
assistance in creating strong democratic and economic
institutions, supporting good governance alongside programmes of
macroeconomic and structural reform supported by the IMF and
World Bank. We call on the World Bank to play a strong role in
coordinating bilateral and multilateral assistance in these
areas;
- we also agree on the need to consider ways for debt relief
mechanisms, including the HIPC initiative where appropriate, to
be used to release more and earlier resources for essential
rehabilitation, particularly for those countries with arrears to
the IFIs.
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 a competitive
environment 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.
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. We reaffirm our
commitment to the stated mission of the Nuclear Safety Working
Group (NSWG). We agreed to deepen Russia's role in the
activities of the NSWG, with a view to eventual full membership
in the appropriate circumstances. We acknowledge successful
cooperation on the pilot project of the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and consider it
desirable to continue international cooperation for civil
nuclear fusion development.
11. The greatest environmental threat to our future
prosperity remains climate change. We confirm our determination
to address it, and endorse 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
welcome the recent signature of the Protocol by some of us and
confirm the intention of the rest of us to sign it 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 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 and diffusion.
12. The recent devastating forest fires in Southeast Asia
and the Amazon, threatening not only our environment but even
economic growth and political stability, illustrate the crucial
importance of global cooperation, and of better and more
effective frameworks and practical efforts designed to
sustainably manage and conserve forests. In the year 2000 we
will assess our progress on implementation of the G8 Action
Programme published last week. We strongly support the ongoing
work on forests under the auspices of the United Nations, and we
look forward to continuing these efforts.
Growth, employability, and inclusion
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13. All our people, men and women, deserve the opportunity
to contribute to and share in national prosperity through work
and a decent standard of living. The challenge is how to reap
the benefits of rapid technological change and economic
globalisation whilst ensuring that all our citizens share in
these benefits by increasing growth and job creation, and
building an inclusive society. To accomplish this, we recognise
the importance of modernising domestic economic and social
structures within a sound macro-economic framework. To these
ends we strongly endorse the seven principles agreed by the G8
Finance, Economic, Labour and Employment Ministers at their
London Conference in February on "Growth, Employability and
Inclusion." We also welcome the conclusions of the Kobe Jobs
Conference of November 1997, with their particular focus on
active ageing.
14. We discussed and welcomed the Action Plans we have each
produced to show how the seven principles of the London
Conference are being implemented. By sharing national
experiences and best practices in this area, we can improve our
policies and responses. We underlined the importance of the
involvement of employers and unions in securing successful
implementation of these Plans.
15. The Action Plans show that individually we are all
making new commitments to improve employability and job creation
in our countries. In particular, we have committed ourselves to:
- measures to help young, long-term unemployed and other
groups hard hit by unemployment find work;
- measures to help entrepreneurs to set up companies;
- carrying out structural reforms, including making tax and
benefit systems more employment friendly and liberalisation of
product markets;
- measures to promote lifelong learning.
16. Each country confirmed its determination to introduce
the measures set out in its Action Plans and to pursue the
concept of active ageing. Measures on active ageing should
explore what forms of work are appropriate to the needs of older
workers and adapt work to suit them accordingly.
17. These measures 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 renew our support for global progress
towards the implementation of internationally recognised core
labour standards, including continued collaboration between the
ILO and WTO secretariats in accordance with the conclusions of
the Singapore conference and the proposal for an ILO declaration
and implementation mechanism on these labour standard.
Combating drugs and international crime
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18. Globalisation has been accompanied by a dramatic
increase in transnational crime. This takes many forms,
including trafficking in drugs and weapons; smuggling of human
beings; the abuse of new technologies to steal, defraud and
evade the law; and the laundering of the proceeds of crime.
19. 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.
20. To fight this threat, international cooperation is
indispensable. We ourselves, particularly since the Lyon summit
in 1996, have sought ways to improve that cooperation. 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 each other 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.
21. 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 additional tools they need.
- We agree to implement rapidly the ten principles and ten
point action plan agreed by our Ministers on high tech crime. We
call for close cooperation with industry to reach agreement on a
legal framework for obtaining, presenting and preserving
electronic data as evidence, while maintaining appropriate
privacy protection, and agreements on sharing evidence of those
crimes with international partners. 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 place special emphasis on the issues of money
laundering and financial crime, including issues raised by
offshore financial centres. We welcome the proposal to hold in
Moscow in 1999 a Ministerial meeting on combating transnational
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 liaise with
the equivalent agencies in partner countries. We agreed on
principles and the need for adequate legislation to facilitate
asses 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 agree on the need to explore ways of combating official
corruption arising from the large flows of criminal money.
- We are deeply concerned by all forms of trafficking of
human beings including the smuggling of migrants. We agreed to
joint action to combat trafficking in women and children,
including efforts to prevent such crimes, protect victims and
prosecute the traffickers. 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
an important 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 further action,
particularly in dealing with major smuggling routes and
targeting specific forms of 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.
22. We urge the Lyon Group to intensify its ongoing work and
ask our Ministers to report back to our next Summit on progress
on the action plan on high tech crime, the steps taken against
money laundering and the joint action on trafficking in human
beings. We also welcome the steps agreed by our Environment
Ministers on 5 April to combat environmental crime.
23. There is a strong link between drugs and wider
international and domestic crime. We welcome the forthcoming
UNGASS on drugs. This should signal the international
community's determination in favour of 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 cooperation to curb illicit trafficking in
drugs and chemical precursors, action to reduce demand in our
countries, including through policies to reduce drug dependency,
and support for a global approach to eradicating illicit crops.
We welcome the UNDCP's global approach to eliminating or
significantly reducing illicit drug production, where
appropriate through effective alternative development
programmes.
Non-Proliferation and Export Controls
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24. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and
their delivery systems threatens the security of every nation.
Our countries have been in the forefront of efforts to prevent
proliferation, and we have worked closely together to support
international non-proliferation regimes. We pledge to continue
and strengthen this cooperation. As a key element of this
cooperation, we reaffirm our commitment to ensure the effective
implementation of export controls, in keeping with our
undertakings within the non-proliferation regimes. We will deny
any kind of assistance to programmes for weapons of mass
destruction and their means of delivery. To this end, we will
where appropriate undertake and encourage the strengthening of
laws, regulations and enforcement mechanisms. We will likewise
enhance amongst ourselves and with other countries our
cooperation on export control, including for instance on the
exchange of information. We will ask our experts to focus on
strengthening export control implementation. And
Year 2000 Bug
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25. The Year 2000 (or Millennium) Bug problem, deriving from
the way computers deal with the change to the year 2000,
presents major challenges to the international community, with
vast implications, in particular in the defence, transport,
telecommunications, financial services, energy and environmental
sectors, and we noted the vital dependence of some sectors on
others. We agreed to take further urgent action and to share
information, among ourselves and with others, that will assist
in preventing disruption in the near and longer term. We shall
work closely with business and organisations working in those
sectors, who will bear much of the responsibility to address the
problem. We will work together in international organisations,
such as the World Bank to assist developing countries, and the
OECD, to help solve this critical technological problem and
prepare for the year 2000.
Next Summit
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26. We accepted the invitation of the Chancellor of the
Federal Republic of Germany to meet again next year in Cologne
on 18-20 June.
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