The annual G8 summit could be a time for mutual commiseration.
The leaders of rich countries who will gather in Italy this week share many economic woes. From London to Paris and Washington to Moscow, what used to be different “models” or economic systems are converging fast on the way down. It would be tempting to trade moans about bank bailouts and bankruptcies, shrinking GDPs and widening deficits.
But the G8 leaders should do more. To start, they might listen to the leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, who will also be meeting next door. Following a new tradition, the rich world summit has de facto widened to include that up-and-coming G5. Obama, Medvedev, Merkel, Brown and their colleagues can learn that their problems won’t be solved unless the rest of the world’s are too.
They could also listen to the twin warnings against protectionism issued over the weekend. Both Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, and Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organisation, know protectionism when they see it. They were once partners and sometimes adversaries in the world trade negotiations – when Zoellick was the US trade representative, and Lamy the European Union commissioner in charge of trade.
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