INADEQUATE MEASURES FOR WORLD ECONOMY
The world economy is another major topic at the working session of the G8 summit. But the leaders wrote few effective "prescriptions" for the issue.
The G8 leaders said they were positive about the outlook of the world economy, despite problems.
The leaders expressed their "strong concern about elevated fuel and food prices since they pose a serious challenge to the stable growth worldwide."
They also said they will resist protectionist pressures against international trade and investment in all its manifestations.
While the G8 leaders attach great importance to the most pressing issues that are threatening the world economy, they failed to come up with specific measures.
Economists have blamed the U.S. subprime loan crisis for the slowing global economy, yet the G8 leaders did not put forth any new measures to deal with the crisis during their working session and they only repeated their previous suggestions for strengthening the financial system.
On the issue of the WTO Doha round which is critical to economic growth and development, there was no exciting news from the G8 summit.
The failure to make a breakthrough in the negotiations of the Doha round was due mainly to the sharp differences between developing countries and the U.S. and European countries over whether the latter should cancel agricultural subsidies.
The G8 summit also failed to write an effective "prescription" to curb speculation in oil, whose prices have shot up to record highs.
