G20 Draft Communiqué Takes A Mild Tone
President Obama arrives in London Tuesday to join the leaders of the world's richest countries to try to rescue a declining international economy.
As is the case with most summits, the G20 conclusions were written before any of the world leaders arrived, and the draft final communiqué, leaked to the Financial Times shows just how little optimism the members really feel about reaching a consensus on how to achieve their goals.
The draft says little about economic stimuli, a fundamental principle of the Obama team's rescue plans, and instead puts all the world's eggs in the trade basket — the sole hope, it would seem, to revive a global economy which appears to be tottering on the brink of collapse.
The communiqué, which could be revised during negotiations at Thursday's summit, offers a commitment to avoid protectionism and to revive stalled World Trade Organization talks. It sets a timeframe to give more voting rights to developing countries at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and it calls for market and financial instrument reform, including hedge funds and credit rating companies, but leaves it to individual countries to do the regulation.
