Global Economic Issues: G8 Economic Summits
The 30th annual G8 Economic Summit was hosted by President George W. Bush of the United States and held at Sea Island, Georgia, June 8-10, 2004. The annual economic summits were born out of the "Library Group," the informal meetings of the finance ministers (later the G5 meetings of the finance ministers). These Library Group began with an invitation from George Shultz to the finance ministers of Germany, France, and the U.K. to meet in the White House Library. At that time, Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt participated in the early meetings as finance ministers and felt this informal cooperation should continue with the other G5 counterparts (France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan).
Three realities motivated the first summit, hosted and organized by then President Giscard in 1975. First there was the realization that some global economic events, such as the 1973-1974 oil shocks, lie beyond the individual control of policymakers in the major industrialized economies. Second, was the increasing integration of the advanced economies, and an increase in the number of problems common to these economies and shared by policymakers. Third was the awareness that even in a flexible exchange rate regime, nations cannot conduct economic policy independent of one another. The summits were expanded to the G7 (Italy and Canada) in 1976 and then formerly to the G8 (Russia) in 1998.
For a perspective on the summits contribution to global economic policymaking, see the article by Daniels titled "The Significance of the Economic Summits." For a wealth of information on the G8 summits, visit the website of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto at http://www.g7.utoronto.ca.
|
