G-20 Summit 2012 Declaration

The seventh meeting of the G-20 heads of government known as Mexico Summit was held in Los Cabos. The ongoing difficulties posed by the eurozone crisis took centre stage in the G-20 leaders. While other subjects, such as food security and green growth - were also addressed in the final leaders’ declaration. The summit has ended with a declaration against protectionism and for growth. During the summit the Euro Area members of the G20 pledged to take all necessary policy measures to safeguard the integrity and stability of the area, improve the functioning of financial markets and break the feedback loop between sovereigns and banks. Further Euro Area members committed to foster intra Euro Area adjustment through structural reforms to strengthen competitiveness in deficit countries and to promote demand and growth in surplus countries. The European Union members of the G20 are determined to move forward expeditiously on measures to support growth including through completing the European Single Market and making better use of European financial means, such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), pilot project bonds, and structural and cohesion funds, for more targeted investment, employment, growth and competitiveness, while maintaining the firm commitment to implement fiscal consolidation to be assessed on a structural basis. All G20 members pledged to take the necessary actions to strengthen global growth and restore confidence as strong, sustainable and balanced growth leads to higher job creation and increment in the welfare of people across. All G20 members have put forward structural reform commitments to strengthen and sustain global demand, foster job creation, contribute to global rebalancing and increase growth potential. These include product market reforms to increase competition, measures to stabilize the housing sector, labour market reforms to boost competitiveness and employment, as well as steps to strengthen social safety nets in a way that is fiscally responsible, advance tax reform to raise productivity, increase investment in infrastructure, and promote inclusive green growth and sustainable development as appropriate to country circumstances. The members reaffirmed their commitments for appropriate changes in labor market measures to create jobs with labor rights, social security coverage and decent income to enhance social inclusion and reduce poverty. Further the members also committed to intensify efforts to strengthen cooperation in education, skills development and training policies, including internship and on-the-job training, which support a successful school-to-work transition. Recognizing the importance of trade to boost up the economy of the nations, the members firmly committed to open trade and investment, expanding markets and resisting protectionism in all its forms, which are necessary conditions for sustained global economic recovery, jobs and development. Thus pledged to support strengthening process of the WTO by improving the way it conducts its regular business, and its dispute settlement system. The members committed to increase the resources of IMF which will enhance the IMF’s role in crisis prevention and resolution. These resources will be available for the whole membership of the IMF, and not earmarked for any particular region. These resources, which qualify as reserve assets, would be channeled through bilateral loans and investments such as note purchase agreements to the IMF’s General Resources Account under the modalities which have been approved by the IMF Executive Board. The Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture adopted by the Ministers of Agriculture in 2011 underlined that to feed a world population expected to exceed 9.3 billion by 2050; agricultural production will have to increase between 50 and 70 percent, and by almost 100 percent in developing countries. Thus to fight hunger, members committed to continue r initiatives such as the Tropical Agriculture Platform, the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management, the GEO Global Agriculture Monitoring, research initiatives for wheat, rice and corn, the Rapid Response Forum, regional emergency food reserves, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program and support for the Principles of Responsible Agriculture Investment. Further they committed to remove export restrictions and extraordinary taxes on food purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme (WFP). The members also committed to take steps to deal with the growing problem of corruption and money laundering.