Oil and food prices and a last-minute push to seal a Doha trade deal will be the top economic issues on the agenda at the Group of Eight leading nations summit in Japan next week, a U.K. government official said Thursday.
The first meeting of G8 officials Tuesday morning will focus on economic issues, including a discussion of the state of the global economy, including "financial markets, oil and food prices."
The G8 meetings with Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico Wednesday and with African nations Monday will be opportunities to push the Doha round, the official said.
On oil prices, talks are expected to focus on medium-term steps to improve perceptions about the mismatch between oil supply and demand, the official said. The U.K. government will also push for G8 backing for regular discussions between oil producers and consumers, such as last month's gathering in Jeddah.
"I think the discussion will be not around what can the G8 do to bring down oil prices tomorrow...but around how we change perceptions of (future) supply and demand," the official said.
On trade, the official said the G8 meeting comes at a "fortuitous time" - days before scheduled World Trade Organization ministerial talks July 21.
The official said if a deal isn't wrapped up in the days following this month's meetings, an accord "is unlikely to be done for a few years."
"The G8 therefore has a real chance...to really create momentum in the run-up to that trade meeting. And given that there's quite a lot of political differences - even though the substantial differences are pretty small - actually the G8 could be crucial on that."
The official said in addition to an already announced meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Brown is also likely to hold informal talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who will be attending the G8 outreach meetings Wednesday.
The official wouldn't comment on whether currency issues would be discussed, but said the G8 is expected to make a statement on the political situation in Zimbabwe.
The G8 includes the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Russia and Japan.
-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-207-842-9270; laurence.norman@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=YR4uBIqxai%2BnNiEwRngPJQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment