Last month, the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Canada’s Minister of Labour announced that the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) will be the venue for the fourth G20 Summit, on June 26-27, 2010. At that time, she said “The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Canada’s leadership will be reflected at the summit in Toronto, and hosting it will provide an ideal opportunity to showcase this great city.”
Under the theme of “Recovery and New Beginnings,” the G20 Toronto Summit will focus on recovery from the global economic and financial crisis and the implementation of commitments from previous G20 summits, while laying the foundation for sustainable and balanced growth.
The G20 Toronto Summit will provide leaders with an important opportunity to follow through on commitments made at previous summits and to continue the work of building a healthier, stronger and more sustainable global economy.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper today said this will be another chapter in the historic role the G-20 has played in dealing with the most severe financial and economic crisis facing the world since the Great Depression. He said, “Our collective efforts, the G 20’s efforts, are helping to minimize the impact of the crisis and to favour a more rapid recovery. In so doing, the G 20 is playing its rightful role as a principal forum for international economic cooperation.”
In speaking to the theme developed for Toronto he said leaders must begin the task of ‘Recovery and New Beginnings’ by continuing to make real progress in delivering on the actions agreed to in Washington, London and Pittsburgh. “First, we must continue with our stimulus measures. At the same time, it also behooves us to put our minds to how these will be balanced with exit strategies. Second, we should aim to progress our discussions on the global framework launched in Pittsburgh for achieving long-term growth that is balanced and sustainable. This will enable us to identify specific actions at our next leaders’ summit in Seoul in November. Third, we must strengthen regulatory systems for the financial sector. These reforms have already been agreed. However, they will not be effective unless we put them in place. This has become a matter of urgency. We must get this done within the agreed timeframe. Fourth, we must continue working to advance quota and other reforms at international financial institutions to increase their legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness. We must also provide adequate resources and tools to enable these institutions, including multilateral development banks, to do what has been asked of them. Fifth, securing recovery requires all of us to keep our markets open. I feel very strongly about this.”
He concluded that that there are things that the G 20 must do to remain credible as a principal global forum for economic leadership: it must honour its past commitments; and it must also promote a sense of shared responsibility for the global economy, for the happiness and well being of people around the world.
Background
Established in 1999, following the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the G20 convenes annual meetings of finance ministers and central bank governors from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
In 2008, G20 leaders met for the first time in Washington to develop a coordinated response to the global economic crisis. The Washington Summit was followed by summits in London (April 2009) and in Pittsburgh (September 2009), where leaders designated the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Over the course of the three summits, leaders crafted a coordinated global response to the crisis. They implemented stimulus measures to restore confidence and agreed on actions to strengthen financial regulation. Leaders also committed to reform international financial institutions and agreed to promote trade and resist protectionism. These interventions have been effective in mitigating the impact of the crisis, while encouraging a quicker transition to recovery than could otherwise have been expected.
The G20 Toronto Summit will provide leaders with an important opportunity to follow through on commitments made at previous summits and to continue the work of building a healthier, stronger and more sustainable global economy.
Recovery and New Beginnings
Under the general theme, the Summit will deal with a number of issues:
Financial Sector Reform: At the Pittsburgh Summit, leaders agreed to strengthen financial regulatory systems through a variety of measures. The Toronto Summit will provide leaders with an opportunity to evaluate progress on this front and to further their discussions on ways to ensure transparency in the marketplace, to help reduce excessive risk taking and to encourage a culture of prudent behaviour focused on the long term.
Stimulus Programs: The G20’s globally coordinated fiscal and monetary stimulus measures have been effective in mitigating the impact of the global economic and financial crisis and have encouraged a quicker transition to recovery than might have been expected. While global recovery remains fragile, leaders must turn their attention at the G20 Toronto Summit to developing coordinated exit strategies to ensure that policies are sustainable in the medium term.
Global Trade and Growth: The G20 has been largely successful at avoiding the types of protectionist measures that turned the stock market crash of 1929 into the Great Depression. In Pittsburgh, leaders committed to continuing efforts to guard against protectionism and to liberalize trade. Canada, which has unilaterally lowered tariffs as part of its stimulus package, will work with G20 partners to encourage ongoing multilateral efforts towards further liberalization.
The Republic of Korea, G20 Chair for 2010, will host the fifth summit in November in Seoul.