Harper delivers G20 summit statement
Posted June 27, 2010 7:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – The G20 summit wrapped up, Sunday, and it appears to be a win for Canada.
For Canada, as host of the G20, the end results of the meetings will be considered a victory: A concrete framework for advanced economies to start reducing deficit spending, while allowing nations to maintain their sovereignty on fiscal policy.The final summit communique committed advanced economies to cut their deficits in half by 2013 and put their debt-GDP loads on a stable or downward path by 2016.
“The G20 still has a lot to do to fully entrench the global recovery, but these are important steps forward and, as you know, they are steps that Canada was seeking,” Harper said.
He specifically praised the recent UK budget, Chinese flexibility on currency and the United States’ full financial sector reform.
Harper was asked how Canadians should look at the results of the G20, in terms of benefits for the domestic economy.
“There isn’t really a Canadian economy anymore, it is a global economy, and yes, the Canadian economy, so to speak, is doing better than any other countries. But the general trajectory of the Canadian economy, whether we’re on the downhill as we were last year or whether we’re on the rebound as we are this year, is fundamentally determined by the state of the global economy,” Harper said.
The summit wrapped up with certain issues continuing to the next G20, which is planned for South Korea in November — in particular, more on the issue of financial sector reform.
Environmental issues were barely mentioned — instead moving that forward to a United Nations summit on climate change scheduled for December in Mexico.
