WASHINGTON: As leaders of 20 advanced and emerging economies, including India, arrive in Washington on Friday to take stock of the financial meltdown, the United States expects broad agreement on a G-20 action plan to contain the economic slide and stabilise markets.
“We are expecting an important and vigorous discussion with some quite concrete results,” a senior aide to President George W Bush told reporters.
“We expect that leaders will want to come to an agreement on an action plan identifying specific implementation measures,” he said.
Playing down differences among various governments on how best to protect growth and avoid a repeat of the credit crunch, Dan Price, assistant to President Bush on International Economic Affairs, said: “There is a lot more common ground among countries who will be around the table than the rhetoric might suggest.” European leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Markel, are demanding greater government control of markets and investors following a crisis that they have tended to blame on the US’s backing of unfettered capitalism.
But President Bush believes that needed reforms will be successful only if they are also based on a common commitment to free market principles, including open and competitive economies, expanded trade and increased investment in capital flows, Price said.
“The President will, therefore, use this opportunity to urge his fellow leaders not to turn inward or stifle markets.
Protectionist rhetoric about walling off markets or companies does not help stabilise markets, but in fact leads to greater uncertainty," he said.
The summit, which will hold two sessions on Saturday will undertake a thorough discussion of causes of the crisis, near-term actions to be taken and longer-term actions to be considered.