Reconfirming the Very Basis of G7 Cooperation

With its special responsibility to lead in global economic governance, the G7 should reconfirm its commitment to the market economy. Not only stability, but also the enhancement of growth potentials should be pursued. The focus should be on trade and investment: (a) the fight against protectionism, a central role for the WTO in the multilateral trading system and the contribution of the G7 to the success of the eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC 11) should be highlighted; (b) infrastructure investment in terms of quantity and quality should be promoted. With regards to cooperation in economic policy, a greater emphasis on monitoring and a peer review process should be pursued, as should increased efforts to promote structural reform.

Paper presented at the international conference on “Major Challenges for Global Macroeconomic Stability. The Role of the G7”, organized in Rome on 27-28 March 2017 by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Bank of Italy.