TORONTO, July 16, 2001 -- A high level group of independent experts from the G8 countries recommends that the G8 Summit to be held in Genoa later this month make four major commitments:

• Contribute $10 billion a year to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the world’s poorest countries;
• Launch a comprehensive new trade round in the WTO this year;
• Reform economic sanctions against Iraq in return for firm action by Iraq to permit weapons facilities inspections; and
• Enhance the effectiveness of future G8 Summits by inviting leaders of the G20 countries to attend future meetings.

The new report urges action on four critical issues that require new initiatives and are sufficiently close to achieving international consensus that strong G8 Summit leadership could produce dramatic progress. These issues are:

Global Poverty
The G8 should build on its debt relief initiatives to broaden the attack on poverty. To meet the goals for poverty reduction set by the UN Millennium 2000 Summit, the most urgent requirement is full funding of a global attack on the three most deadly pandemics of HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. From HIV/AIDS alone, more than 20 million Africans have already died, more than 100 million people will be infected by 2005, and 13 million children have already been orphaned.

The G8 countries should sharply increase their funding for disease prevention and cure and provide $10 billion in annual support by 2005. Such assistance will cost the G8 countries only $10 per person per year (1/20th of 1 percent of their GDPs). Coupled with firm commitments by recipient countries to reform health care delivery systems, such financing will save millions of lives and avoid huge economic losses.

World Trade
Severe disputes, notably between Europe and the US, but also between China and Japan threaten world trade. Regional initiatives, such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the East Asian Free Trade Area, could undermine the multilateral system with devastating results for the world economy, and especially for the poorer countries that depend heavily on trade for economic growth.

The G8 should commit to launch a new multilateral trade round at the WTO Ministerial Conference, set for Qatar in November. To make that commitment credible, they should agree to a comprehensive agenda for the round that includes issues of greatest importance to the developing countries as well as to themselves. The wider the range of issues, the more tradeoffs are possible to ensure all participants realize their priority objectives. A successful round also requires the US administration to receive Trade Promotion Authority from the US congress. The G8 should also work to speed the accession of Russia to the WTO.

Iraq
More than a decade after the Gulf war, Iraq represents that greatest threat to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and thus to world security. It is imperative to restore an effective international regime that controls its weapons development.

The G8 should reach a consensus to ease the present economic sanctions in the United Nations against Iraq, which have limited impact and adversely affect much of its population, in return for firm action by Iraq to permit effective international inspection of all its weapons facilities. As a matter of prudence, comprehensive controls should be retained over Iraq’s use of its oil revenues and arms imports. Renewed military actions should also be envisaged to enforce the inspection regime if other methods fail.

Strengthen the G8
Thirty years after summitry began, the G8 still represents about 2/3rd of world economy output but only 10 percent of world population. The G8 should broaden its outreach in a systematic manner that goes beyond the ad hoc initiatives of recent host countries by inviting selected leaders from poorer countries to meet with them separately.

The G8 should invite the Heads of State and Government of the G20, a group whose countries include over half the world’s population and already meet regularly at the Finance Ministers level, to join them annually around their own summits. Such meetings would enhance both the effectiveness of the G8 and the legitimacy of the entire system of global governance.

The G8 must also streamline its own procedures and focus its agenda. Setting clear priorities and implementing major substantive initiatives such as those suggested above are required if the G8 leaders are to strengthen their essential role in the process of international cooperation and global economic progress.

Ken McGuffin
Media Relations Officer
Rotman School of Management
Voice: (416) 946-3818
E-mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

Professor Wendy Dobson
Institute for International Business
Rotman School of Management
Voice: (416) 978-7792
Fax: (416) 978-0002
E-mail: dobson@rotman.utoronto.ca

Hon. Barbara McDougall
President
Canadian Institute of International Affairs
Voice: (416) 487-6830
Fax: (416) 487-6737
E-mail: bmcdoug@ciia.org

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