===========================================================================
G8 Declaration on the World Economy
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 8, 2008

G8 Declaration on the World Economy

ÿÿWhite House News

ÿÿÿÿÿ G8 Summit 2008

Global Growth

1. We remain positive about the long-term resilience of our economies and
future global economic growth. Emerging market economies are still growing
strongly though our growth has moderated. However, the world economy is now
facing uncertainty and downside risks persist. Among others, we express our
strong concern about elevated commodity prices, especially of oil and food,
since they pose a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide, have
serious implications for the most vulnerable, and increase global
inflationary pressure. We are determined to continuously take appropriate
actions, individually and collectively, to ensure stability and growth in
our economies and globally.

Financial market conditions have improved somewhat in the past few months.
But serious strains still exist. While good progress has been made in
implementing the recommendations by the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) in
April, we urge private-sector players, national supervisory authorities and
international bodies to rapidly implement all FSF recommendations to
strengthen resilience of the financial system. We underscore the importance
of implementing the FSF report's recommendations, as set out by the G8
Finance Ministers' Statement in Osaka.

2. We are mindful of the inter-related nature of the issues surrounding the
world economy. We remain committed to promoting a smooth adjustment of
global imbalances through sound macroeconomic management and structural
policies in our countries as well as in emerging economies and oil
producing countries. In some emerging economies with large and growing
current account surpluses, it is crucial that their effective exchange
rates move so that necessary adjustment will occur. We will promote
continued consultation with our partner countries.

3. Globalization is a key driver for global economic growth and strong,
prosperous economies, supported by shared values of political democracy,
economic freedom and accountable institutions. Globalization and open
markets offer great opportunities for our societies, emerging economies and
developing countries. We are strongly committed to use these opportunities
for the benefit of our citizens and global growth. At the same time, we
will address various political, economic and social challenges for
extending globalization's benefits to all.

4. We invite international organizations, in particular the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the
International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), to enhance their cooperation and to
improve coherence.

Trade and Investment

5. We will resist protectionist pressures against international trade and
investment in all its manifestations.

A successful conclusion of an ambitious, balanced and comprehensive WTO
Doha agreement is critical to economic growth and development. Given the
crucial stage of negotiations, we reiterate our determination to work as a
matter of urgency toward the conclusion of the negotiations and call on all
WTO Members to make substantial contributions with a view to establishing
modalities for Agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access) and
achieving positive and tangible results on Services. We welcome the
convening of a ministerial meeting starting on 21 July. We also support the
holding of a Signaling Conference on Trade in Services on the same
occasion.

For the purpose of striking an overall balance, we stress the need for
making progress and delivering meaningful outcomes in all the areas within
the single undertaking.

6. Open trade and investment policies strengthen economies. All countries
should take steps to develop, maintain and promote regimes that welcome
foreign investment, guarantee non-discriminatory treatment for foreign
investment, and ensure freedom to transfer capital and returns from
investment. Any foreign investment restrictions should be very limited,
focusing primarily on national security concerns, and should adhere to the
principles of transparency and predictability, proportionality, and
accountability. Furthermore, we note the importance of high standards of
investment protection in international agreements including fair and
equitable treatment, prompt, adequate and effective compensation in the
event of expropriation, and access to international arbitration to resolve
disputes. We are equally committed to high liberalization standards, such
as national treatment and most-favored-nation treatment, in bilateral
agreements in relation to investment.

7. Open and competitive capital markets can promote economic growth. We
encourage actions by financial markets regulators through various
approaches that can facilitate cross-border capital markets services,
including through the ongoing discussion of mutual recognition of
comparable securities regimes.

8. Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are increasingly important participants in
the world economy and we welcome recent commitments by some SWFs to greater
transparency. We encourage the work of the IMF and the OECD to identify
best practices for SWFs and recipient countries respectively, and in this
context, welcome the Declaration on Sovereign Wealth Funds and Recipient
Country Policies at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting.

9. Reaffirming our Heiligendamm commitments, we will promote Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) including through encouragement of voluntary
adherence to the relevant international instruments, standards and
principles by companies from all countries. We recognize and commend
efforts by private businesses for undertaking socially responsible
investments. We will encourage good corporate governance practices.

10. We welcome the joint statement of the G8 Business Summit held in April,
and are determined to enhance our cooperation with all stakeholders
including business communities, consumer associations, workers and trade
unions in tackling various challenges we face.

Energy Security

11. We reaffirm our commitment to the St. Petersburg Global Energy Security
Principles and the implementation of its Plan of Action and invite other
countries to embrace these Principles. We therefore compiled national
reports, with the assistance of the International Energy Agency (IEA),
evaluating our efforts to adhere to those principles and welcome the
corresponding overview provided by the IEA. We are committed to updating
our reports for 2009 Summit.

12. We have strong concerns about the sharp rise in oil prices, which poses
risks to the global economy. Concerted efforts are needed to address the
underlying causes for the benefit of all. On the supply side, production
and refining capacities should be increased in the short term. Joint
efforts are also necessary to expand upstream and downstream investment in
the medium term. Oil-producing countries should ensure transparent and
stable investment environments conducive to increasing the production
capacity needed to meet rising global demand. On the demand side, it is
important to make further efforts to improve energy efficiency as well as
pursue energy diversification.

In reconfirming the shared interest and responsibility of energy producing
and consuming countries in promoting global energy security, we will
enhance further dialogue and partnership. In this regard, as a follow-up to
the recent Jeddah Energy Meeting, we look forward to the meeting to be held
in London later this year. Also, we encourage major countries that are not
IEA members to deepen their dialogue with the IEA, including through active
participation in IEA programs, as appropriate.

13. To enhance energy security, we propose holding an energy forum to focus
on energy efficiency and new technologies, which could also contribute to
dialogue between producers and consumers.

14. Greater transparency will lead to better functioning energy markets and
hence a better balance between supply and demand. Therefore, we need to
improve collection and timely reporting of market data on oil and develop
shared analysis of oil market trends and outlook. We therefore continue to
strongly support the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) as a significant
contribution in the efforts for information sharing including on oil stocks
among energy producers and consumers. We support the efforts of the JODI
partner organizations including the International Energy Forum (IEF) to
realize further progress of JODI in terms of quality, completeness and
timeliness of information. We stress the importance of energy markets which
send undistorted price signals and are free from any political pressure. We
welcome the G8 Finance Ministers' request to the IMF and the IEA to jointly
carry out further analysis of real and financial factors behind the recent
surge in oil and commodity prices, their volatility, and the effects on the
global economy. We also welcome the efforts taken by relevant national
authorities for increased transparency of commodity futures markets and
encourage further cooperation between them.

Raw Materials

15. To promote improved transparency, accountability, good governance and
sustainable economic growth in the extractive sector, and to address the
natural resource dimensions of armed conflict and post-conflict situations,
we:

(a) continue to support initiatives such as the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI) and call for its full implementation and for
candidate countries to complete the validation process in a timely manner.
We encourage emerging economies and their companies to support the
initiative;

(b) promote improved resource management including fiscal transparency and
legislative oversight by resource-rich countries through supporting
international financial institutions' efforts to develop international
standards and codes to be voluntarily adopted by those countries, and
technical assistance, as appropriate; and

(c) support international efforts to respond more effectively to the
natural resource dimensions of conflict and post-conflict situations, and
would welcome additional analysis on the issue by the OECD Development
Assistance Committee (DAC), the United Nations Secretary General, and the
World Bank.

16. We affirm the importance of open raw materials markets as the most
efficient mechanism for resources allocation. We call on our trading
partners to strictly comply with WTO rules and to enhance the transparency
and predictability of their measures in this area.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

17. Effective promotion and protection of IPR are critical to the
development of creative products, technologies and economies. We will
advance existing anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiatives through, inter
alia, promoting information exchange systems amongst our authorities, as
well as developing non-binding Standards to be Employed by Customs for
Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at the World Customs Organization. We
encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international
legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek
to complete the negotiation by the end of this year. We will promote
practical cooperation between our countries to develop tools to combat new
techniques in counterfeiting and piracy and spread best practices. We
reaffirm our commitment on government use of software in full compliance
with the relevant international agreements and call on other countries to
follow our commitment.

18. Firmly believing that an efficient and well-functioning IP system
benefits countries at all stages of development, we:

(a) reaffirm the importance of global patent harmonization and expanding
international patent collaboration, including accelerated discussions on
the Substantive Patent Law Treaty; and

(b) welcome the progress achieved in the G8 technical assistance pilot
plans as well as the launch of additional pilot plans and joint outreach
programs for public awareness in these countries.

Corruption

19. We call for the ratification of the United Nations Convention against
Corruption (UNCAC) by all countries and a strong and consistent follow-up
of the Bali Conference by ensuring effective implementation of UNCAC,
including the development of a review mechanism. Reaffirming our previous
commitments, we will redouble our efforts to deny safe havens through our
national laws to public officials found guilty of corruption and strengthen
international cooperation on asset recovery including supporting
initiatives of relevant international organizations such as the Stolen
Asset Recovery(StAR) Initiative promoted by the World Bank and United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). We also recognize the importance
of technical assistance to partner countries in their own efforts to
implement the Convention.

We will also strengthen enforcement of the OECD Convention on Combating
Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
with the commitment to continue effective monitoring through the
implementation of a rigorous and permanent peer review mechanism and call
for accession to the Convention by emerging countries. We endorsed an
enhanced accountability report detailing actions of each G8 member to
implement the anticorruption commitments we have undertaken in the G8, and
agreed to update it annually.

Abuses of the Financial System

20. We urge all countries that have not yet fully implemented the OECD
standards of transparency and effective exchange of information in tax
matters to do so without further delay, and encourage the OECD to
strengthen its work on tax evasion and report back in 2010.

Heiligendamm Process

21. We welcome the progress of the Heiligendamm Process, the topic-driven
political dialogue on an equal footing between the members of the G8 and
major emerging economies to enhance mutual confidence and understanding and
to develop a true partnership focusing on investment, innovation, energy
efficiency and development. We look forward to discussing these issues
reflected in the interim report with the leaders of Brazil, China, India,
Mexico and South Africa on 9 July. We reiterate our commitment to the
Process and look forward to receiving a comprehensive concluding report at
the G8 Summit in 2009. We appreciate the OECD for providing organizational
and technical support for the dialogue.

###
===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080708-2.html