Summary of Obama's Closing Remarks
President Obama spoke before a room full of reporters and photographers from around the globe noting this summit -- the third such meeting of the G-20 in the past year (in New York, London and now Pittsburgh) -- marked a turning point. He said during the midst of the financial crisis, the group first met and took steps to secure a global recovery and sustain economic growth. At this, September, meeting, the group examined results of its earlier efforts and committed to future plans.
"We laid the groundwork today for long-term prosperity," said Obama, noting "the bold action we took [earlier]" had brought the financial markets back to life and stopped the crisis from spreading. He emphasized, however, that there is much more work to do.
He said that Pittsburgh, as site of the summit, had "picked itself," since it has shown how it fought off losing the steel industry and has developed other areas of growth. Pittsburgh, he said, "is a model for turning a page to the 21st century economy. The future is not just in New York or LA."
As to discussion and action taken by the G-20 over the day-long meeting, Obama referred to the Leaders' Statement (see below for details) and reiterated steps the leaders agreed to take to move forward. The steps include: tough financial reforms, strengthening international capital standards, holding large financial firms accountable, linking executive pay to long-term performance, phasing out subsidies for fossil fuels and reforming the system of global financial cooperation in governance. There is also mention of support for a single set of high-quality accounting standards.
He indicated a "new era of engagement" both here (the G-20 members) and at the United Nations (where he spoke earlier this week) and that "on issue after issue, we see the international community moving together actively." He also referred to moving together on nuclear issues (on the same day when earlier today, a joint statement by the leaders of the U.S., the United Kingdom (Gordon Brown) and France (Nicolas Sarkozy) – with support of Germany, whose Chancellor Angela Merkel was not present for the morning announcement – condemned Iran for the discovery by the IAEA that Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility for several years.
For a summary of the Pittsburgh story, click here.
Canadian Prime Minister Closing Press Conference
At his press conference, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Canada has fared not as badly as other markets (that averted a major depression), but noted his view of being part of a global economy. He was optimistic that the time when economies would think globally and not nationtionally would occur. He said the main points from this Pittburgh summit included trade, investment and economic activities.
He believes it a good idea to get all the leaders of the global economy in one room and that the action plan by the G-20 last year to avert global disaster has helped, he said, but not all [participants] have lived up to all [of their commitments], and the group "still has work ahead of us."
He believes at this Pittsburgh meeting the group had set the "principles [for] going foward for a much better global economy."
In a pitch for good governance, Harper said: "Open markets is not the same as ungoverned markets."
In response to a question on including the emerging economies in the Group of 20 (where previously there was the Group of 8 -- which still exists, in addition to the G-20), he reiterated his belief that it's in the best interest of all to deal with the economic issues of all the countries and not just the largest players, pointing out that China has become the second largest economy and India is now in the top 10.
The view in the "declaration," (referring to the Leaders' Statement), he said is that everyone needs to be at the table."
Harper said he's progressively seen more recognition for these smaller economies at summits in past years and added "if we think only nationally, we won't fix problems." And, in summing up the group's reults thus far, he said: "The achievement is truly historic, but we're not out of the woods yet."
Leaders' Statement Issued
At the conclusion of the summit on Sept. 25, the G-20 issued a communique entitled, Leaders' Statement: The Pittsburgh Summit. Highlights from the Leaders' Statement can be found in this FEI Summary.
Earlier Reporting from the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh
On the eve of the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh – the hand-picked locale by President Barack Obama – and the third such meeting since the beginning of the global financial crisis, the world awaited news that the group is accomplishing what it set out to do in the throes of the crisis.
Commentators weren’t optimistic that anything significant would occur here in Pittsburgh.
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, on the other hand, expressed optimism. As reported by Tom Raum, an Asssociated Press writer who covered Geithner’s comments, wrote that Geithner expressed optimism that summit partners would endorse the broad outlines of a U.S. proposal to deal with huge imbalances in the global economy such as large trade surpluses in China and record budget deficits in the U.S. Geithner also said the U.S. supports China’s efforts to gain greater voting rights in the International Monetary Fund over the reservations of European nations, who would lose influence.
Raum also wrote that Geithner said the G-20 countries had reached a consensus on the “basic outline” of a proposal to limit bankers’ compensation by the end of this year, saying it would involve setting standards in each of the countries and would be overseen by the Financial Stability Board (the international group of central bankers and regulators) "We want to have very strong standards to limit the risks that compensation practices" encourage, said Geithner, who added that on Friday, at the summit’s close, “you will see a really far-reaching, pretty detailed set of standards."
Before the summit even began, world leaders were said to be coming to the summit with specific interests. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “We must not search for substitute issues and forget over them financial market regulation.” The summit, she said, must be a critical “landmark” and must focus on financial market regulation. She also said “every financial product, institution and location must be made subject to regulation.”
The United Kingdom Primer Minister Gordon Brown wants to talk about a new system of global governance, and U.S. President Obama wants to talk about limiting global imbalances.
Other news from summit communiqués:
- the G-20 countries, which account for 90 percent of the world’s output, vowed to keep emergency economic support in place until a recovery was secured;
- the G-20 agrees to implement new bank capital rules by 2012;
- tighter rules on how much capital banks must have to absorb losses should be ready by the end of 2010 and will be phased in during the following two years;
- On bankers’ pay, the communiqué suggested linking pay to “long-term value creation, not excessive risk taking;”
- Also, Emily Kaiser and Darren Ennis, writing for Reuters, report: “The Group of 20 will become the forum for global economic management, giving rising powers such as China more clout, and roll out tough rules on bank capital by the end of 2012, a draft communiqué said on Friday.”
– Ellen M. Heffes