From G7 to G8: Documentation of Ministerial Conferences, Task Forces, Working Groups, and Expert Groups

From G7 To G8:
Evolution, Role and Documentation of a Unique Institution

Peter I. Hajnal

April 1998

Documentation of Ministerial Conferences, Task Forces, Working Groups, and Expert Groups

Documentation of G7/G8 ministerial meetings varies greatly. Finance ministers usually issue a chairman's summary or other statement at the end of their meetings, but in recent years there have been meetings without public statements and, conversely, statements without formal meetings. Hodges remarks that "the G-7 finance ministers did not issue a communiqué after their 1993 Washington meeting, and indicated to the heads at Tokyo that they too were striving to make their meetings more substantive and informal ... " ₁₂₄ A good source in which to find published statements of the G7 finance ministers is the IMF's IMF Survey. ₁₂₅ For an example of a recent communiqué issued at the conclusion of a meeting, see Statement of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, 21 February 1998; for an example of a statement issued by the finance ministers without a meeting, see G7 [Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors'] Statement on the] Korean Situation, 24 December 1997. ₁₂₆

The Trade Ministers Quadrilateral rarely released public communiqués in the past, but more recently has tended to issue them; for example, a chair's statement was released after its 30 April-2 May 1997 meeting in Toronto, Canada. ₁₂₇ G7/G8 environment ministers tend to release documents; for example, the "Environment Leaders' Summit of the Eight" meeting in Miami, Florida, on 5-6 May 1997 issued a "chair's summary" as well as a declaration on children's environmental health. ₁₂₈

All the G7/G8 employment ministerial conferences have issued public documents. The latest one, the G8 Conference on Growth, Employability and Inclusion, held in London on 21-22 February 1998, released "Chairman's Conclusions". The October 1994 Winnipeg conference on assistance to Ukraine--an ad hoc ministerial meeting--issued a chairman's summary. ₁₂₉

The P8 ministerial meeting on terrorism resulted in the "Ottawa Ministerial Declaration on Countering Terrorism" of December 12, 1995, the 30 July 1996 Paris Ministerial Meeting on Terrorism released its agreement on 25 measures to fight terrorism, and the French President's office released a G7/P8 communiqué on 28 December 1996 on the Peruvian hostage incident. Certain task forces and working groups produce public releases and reports, in addition to confidential documents; the deliberations of others remain secret. An example of available documents is the 40-point "Recommendations" released by the P8 Group of Senior Experts on Transnational Organized Crime on 12 April 1996. On a related topic, the G8 justice and interior ministers' meeting on crime, held in Washington, D.C. on 10 December 1997, reviewed the work of the Senior Experts' Group on Transnational Organized Crime. The results of this ministerial meeting are summarized in a statement by U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno. ₁₃₀

The February 1995 Brussels "information society" conference resulted in a fair amount of documentation, including "chair's conclusions," a thematic paper, and other releases. Access to this material is provided on the Internet by the EU Information Society Project Office. ₁₃₁ The first annual meeting of the G7 Conference on Global Marketplace for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises met in Bonn, Germany, on 7-9 April 1997, producing several documents. ₁₃₂

G7 foreign ministers do not issue public statements on their September annual meetings, but one can trace indirectly certain of their other reports; for example, their Report on Aid to Africa was submitted to the 1986 Tokyo Summit which called for implementation of the recommended measures. ₁₃₃ Other documents, however, are available from meetings attended--sometimes with holders of other portfolios--by foreign ministers; for example, the G7 foreign and finance ministers meeting in Tokyo on 15 April 1993 in preparation for the 1993 Tokyo Summit (with partial Russian participation), issued a G-7 Chairman's Statement on Support for Russian Reform; and the October 1994 Winnipeg G8 foreign ministers' Conference on Partnership for Economic Transformation in Ukraine released a Chairman's Summary, as noted above. ₁₃₄

Sherpas never release public information on their invariably confidential meetings. There are, however, some writings that throw an interesting light on the summit preparatory process; for example, former French sherpa Jacques Attali' 5 memoirs entitled Verbatim, and the following two short writings: François Camé's "Comment les sherpas avaient ficelé le sommet" and Estelle Ardoum's Sherpas et sommets des 7. ₁₃₅

De Guttry observes that "work groups, study groups and task forces ... prepare background documents to facilitate discussion among the Seven ... , they also present specific reports to the G-7 leaders or their personal representatives ... ₁₃₆ One version of the report of the work group on technology, growth and employment, established by the 1982 Versailles Summit, has appeared as a British government publication. ₁₃₇ The Financial Action Task Force, set up by the 1989 Summit of the Arch to coordinate efforts to fight drug-related money laundering, has since become a broader-than-G7 entity and has been publishing annual reports. ₁₃₈

The existence of otherwise not publicly available reports of task forces and working groups may be inferred through references in summit documents. For example, studies prepared by the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation Group, created by the 1977 London Summit, are acknowledged in the Declaration of the 1980 Venice Summit. The same Venice Declaration also supports the recommendations of the International Energy Technology Group which was initiated at the 1979 Tokyo Summit. The 1985 Bonn Summit Declaration refers to its creation of an expert group on aid to Sub-Saharan Africa which was to report to the G7 foreign ministers by September of that year. ₁₃₉ A task force on chemical precursors for the manufacture of illicit drugs was mandated by the 1990 Houston Summit and asked to report within a year; the appropriate report of this Chemical Action Task Force was duly welcomed and endorsed by the 1991 London Summit. ₁₄₀ The Halifax Summit has charged the Terrorism Expert Group to report to a ministerial-level meeting on counterterrorism measures and instructed that the appropriate meetings take place prior to the 1996 summit. ₁₄₁ The two ministerial-level meetings that have taken place so far are cited above; and another counterterrorism Experts' meeting was held on 14-15 April 1997, in Washington, D.C.

The documentation of the G7/G8 system, in all its variety and dynamism, is an essential source of information on vital issues. It is also a potentially rich mine of political, economic and historical data, although it calls for a fair amount of interpretation to get beyond its jargon-laden language and somewhat repetitive nature.

Notes:

Note 124: Hodges, "More Efficiency, Less Dignity: British Perspectives on the Future Role and Working of the G-7," 142-43. Back.

Note 125: International Monetary Fund, IMF Survey, Vol. 1-, 1972-(Washington, D.C.: IMF). The University of Toronto G7 Information Centre has published an almost comprehensive set of G7 finance ministers' statements on the Internet, at www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/finance/finance ministers.htm. Back.

Note 126: Statement of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, 21 February 1998. URL: http//www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/finance/fm980221.htm; G7 [Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors'] Statement on [the] Korean Situation, 24 December 1997. URL: http//www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/finance/fin dec2497.htm. Back.

Note 127: 30th Quadrilateral Trade Ministers Meeting, Chair's Statement, Toronto, 30 April-2 May 1997 URL: http//www. library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/quad3o .htm. Back.

Note 128: Environment Leaders' Summit of the Eight, Miami, Florida, 5-6 May 1997, Chair's Summary. URL: http//www. library.utoronto. ca/www/g7/environment/envsum97 . htm; 1997 Declaration of the Environment Leaders of the Eight on Children's Environmental Health. URL: http//www. library.utoronto. ca/www/g7/environment/envchi97.htm. Back.

Note 129: G8 Conference on Growth, Employability and Inclusion, London on 21-22 February 1998, Chairman's Conclusions. URL: http//www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/adhoc_feb2198.htm; Conference on Partnership for Economic Transition in Ukraine, Winnipeg, Canada, 27 October 1994, Chairman's Summary. URL: http//www. library.utoronto . ca/www/g7/94ukrai.htm. Back.

Note 130: Ottawa Ministerial [P8] Declaration on Countering Terrorism, Ottawa, Canada, 12 December 1995. URL: http//www. library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/terror96 .htm; Ministerial Conference on Terrorism, Agreement on 25 Measures, Paris, 30 July 1996. URL: www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/terror2s.htm; France, Présidence, Communiqué de la Présidence de la République au nom du G7/P8, Paris, 28 décembre 1996. URL: www. library.utoronto. ca/www/g7/perup8_f .htm; Senior Experts on Transnational Organized Crime, P8 Senior Experts Group Recommendations, Paris, 12 April 1996. URL: http//www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/4opts.htm; U. S., Department of Justice, Statement by Attorney General Janet Reno on the Meeting of Justice and Interior Ministers of the Eight, Washington, D.C. 10 December 1997. URL: www.usdoj .gov/opa/pr/1997/December 1997/Sl8cr.html. Back.

Note 131: European Union, Information Society Project Office. URL: www. ispo. cec be. Back.

Note 132: See www.g7ec.de/. Back.

Note 133: "Tokyo Economic Declaration," May 6, 1986, para. 11, in The Seven-Power Summit: Documents from the Summits of Industrialized Countries, 1975-1989, 314-15. Back.

Note 134: [Tokyo Summit], G-7 Chairman's Statement on Support for Russian Reform, in United States, Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, US Department of State Dispatch 4, Supplement 2 (May 1993), 16-18; Conference on Partnership for Economic Transition in Ukraine, Winnipeg, Canada, 27 October 1994, Chairman's Summary URL: http//www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/94ukrai.htm. Back.

Note 135: Jacques Attali, Verbatim (Paris: Fayard, 1993-1995); François Camé, "Comment les sherpas avaient ficelé le sommet", Libération, 17 juillet 1989: 8-15; Estelle Ardoum, Sherpas et sommets des 7 (Lyon: Institut d'Etudes Politiques, 1996). [Computer file] . URL: iep.univ-lyon2.fr/ETU/sherpa.html. Back.

Note 136: De Guttry, "The Institutional Configuration of the G-7 in the New International Scenario," 69. Back.

Note 137: Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons, Session 1982/1983, Technology, Growth and Employment: Report of the Working Group Set Up by the Economic Summit Meeting of 1982, by the Science and Technology Secretariat, Cabinet Office (Cmnd. 8818; London: HMSO, 1983). Back.

Note 138: See, for example, International Efforts to Combat Money Laundering, ed. William C. Gilmore (Cambridge International Documents Series, Vol. 4; Cambridge: Grotius Publications in association with the Commonwealth Secretariat, 1992). Back.

Note 139: Venice Summit, "Declaration," June 23, 1980, paras. 14-15; "The Bonn Economic Declaration," May 4, 1985, para. 9, in The Seven-Power Summit: Documents from the Summits of Industrialized Countries, 1975-1989, 84, 292. Back.

Note 140: "Houston Economic Declaration," July 11, 1990, para. 79, in The Seven-Power Summit: Documents from the Summits of Industrialized Countries; Supplement: Documents from the 1990 Summit, 27; [London] "Economic Declaration", para. 61 (b), in The Twenty G-7 Summits, 228. Back.

Note 141: Halifax Summit, Chairman's Statement, June 17, 1995, para. 10. In United States, Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, US Department of State Dispatch 6, Supplement 4 (July 1995), 11. See also URL: www.library.utoronto.ca/www/g7/9schair.htm. Back.