Is G-7 summit as relevant as it once was?

With the 43rd session of the Group of Seven (G-7) summit about to get underway, some analysts wonder whether the high-profile forum that began in 1975 risks outliving its usefulness.

This year’s summit is set to take place in Taormina May 26-27, on the southern Italian island of Sicily. It is the sixth time Italy has hosted the event, which will also include leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Britain, and the U.S.

The G-7 charter says the group was founded to “facilitate shared macroeconomic initiatives” and to “monitor developments in the world economy … [and] assess economic policies”.

But a growing number of analysts say that role can be better served by other groups, such as the Group of 20, which was founded in 1999 and includes the members of the G-7, plus important developing countries including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa, or perhaps the 35-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, best known as the OECD.

“Twenty-five years ago, the members of the G-7 made up more than 70 percent of the world’s economy,” Antonio Villafranca, research coordinator and head of the European Program at the Italy-based Instituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (Institute for International Political Studies), told Xinhua. “Today, it is less than 50 percent.”

The G-20, in contrast, includes around 85 percent of the world’s economic production, 80 percent of world trade, and around two-thirds of the world’s population.

“It’s easy to imagine that one day the G-20 will assume the role the G-7 has had for the last generation,” Villafranca said.

That will not happen in the near term, where leaders set to meet in Taormina have agreed to take on an ambitious agenda that includes economic cooperation, policies for cross-border taxation, migration, security and terrorism, and climate change.

The G-7 already has the next several summits planned out — In 2018, it will be hosted by Canada, followed by France in 2019, followed by the U.S., Britain, and then Germany in 2022.

According to Antonietta Di Biase, an international law professor and a frequent commentator on international relations with Roma Tre University, there will always be some areas best confronting by a smaller group of wealthy, industrialized countries like the G-7.

“I can imagine the role of the G-7 will evolve over time, and it might be diminished,” Di Biase said in an interview. “But to discuss cooperation on, say, foreign aid it makes sense because these are the countries that provide much of it. For migration, it also makes sense because these are the places, Europe and the U.S., migrants are trying to reach.”

Di Biase went on: “But I can imagine some parts eventually being taken over by the G-20, or the OECD, or multilateral financial entities like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.” Enditem

Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh

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