US President George W Bush will urge Group of 20 leaders at a November 15 summit on the global economic crisis not to use it as an excuse for erecting trade barriers and scuttling free-market principles, senior Bush administration officials said on Wednesday.
“This summit and this process is not about discarding market principles or moving to a single global regulator,” a US official said. “We believe there is little support in Europe or elsewhere for empowering a single global authority to regulate all of the world’s financial markets.”
The official said organisers of the summit, to take place at the White House, were consulting President-elect Barack Obama’s team about the possibility of his attending the meet.
European officials portray the November 15 meeting, which brings key emerging-market countries like China, Brazil, India, South Korea and South Africa together with big industrial nations, as the beginning of a major overhaul of global financial architecture.
US officials said the turmoil in financial markets shows “there needs to be some changes made”, adding substantial reform already was under way and much of it could be done by countries themselves.
“It's important to collaborate together so that our policies are mutually reinforcing and not beggar-thy-neighbour,” a US official said, adding that agreement was possible on an "action plan" for putting into force near-term measures to increase market transparency and coordinate regulation.
{{/usCountry}}“It's important to collaborate together so that our policies are mutually reinforcing and not beggar-thy-neighbour,” a US official said, adding that agreement was possible on an "action plan" for putting into force near-term measures to increase market transparency and coordinate regulation.
{{/usCountry}}Leaders from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will attend the summit as will United nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.