G8 results I: The Summit Declaration ‘Growth and Responsibility in the World Economy’
Behind the screens of chatter about a “climate policy breakthrough” the German government published the summit declaration Growth and Responsibility in the World Economy. This corresponds largely to the prognoses published in this weblog and at wdev.eu since the first draft trickled through (>>> German G8 Politics on the Eve of Heiligendamm). Along with the chapter about energy security and climate protection, the declaration holds firmly to the hard economic interests of the G8 pursued against the rest of the world — growth and stability, investment freedom and conditions, promotion and protection of innovation and intellectual property.
Although the German government originally announced the actual focus of the summit to be new elements in world economic growth, even with a magnifying glass one won’t find anything new in this declaration. The G8 celebrate global economic growth and praise themselves for their respective economic policies. Whereas the G8 promise “to keep going”, the emerging countries are encouraged by every means to exert more exchange rate flexibility, reduce their foreign reserves or reduce imbalances. In the matter of financial market stability and in particular with regard to transparency and control of hedge funds, the German government was unable to impose more than had already been announced in the finance minister’s communiqué.
However, the declaration devoted even more attention to the G8 interest in “investment freedom” and increased promotion and protection of innovation and patents. The former also pertains to the “social dimension of globalisation”. Here, for the first time in a G8 document, some things are emphasised — from the OECD guidelines for multinational corporations to the Decent Work Agenda of the International Labour Organization (ILO) — but only just emphasised. There are no new practical initiatives for implementation. For the second point, the innovation issue, the G8 have adjourned to a new dialogue with the major emerging countries, also because meanwhile it has become clear that the latter are no longer prepared to accept the Northern agenda whereby more patent protection is supposed to mean more development. Here the G8 will need patience and commitment, like in other areas, even if after the document the “Heiligendamm Process” is only scheduled for the next two years.
