Advancing trade, ensuring tax compliance and promoting greater transparency will top the agenda when Britain hosts a two-day Group of Eight (G8) summit in Northern Ireland next week.
During the June 17-18 meeting at a luxury golf resort in Lough Erne, the group comprising seven leading industrialized nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, plus Russia and the European Union — will discuss issues that have worried leaders since the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
The G8 has long been a forum for freeing trade, and Lough Erne will be no exception. Negotiations on a long-mooted free trade agreement between the US and EU are set to begin at the summit, with a further deal involving Canada under consideration.
“There is no better way to show our commitment than trying to launch the EU-US trade deal,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said, saying the agreement would “inject $100 billion into the global economy.” The main focus of the conference looks to be tax havens.
Governments have long demanded action against low— or no-tax territories where multi-national companies and the super-rich set up shell businesses to avoid paying taxes. A British Parliamentary Committee in June blasted Google’s “highly contrived” arrangements to avoid tax.
Britain has come under fire recently for the numerous tax havens flying the Union Jack, which Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said were “the real hotspots of money laundering and tax evasion.” Cameron’s hopes of a deal with these territories ahead of the summit suffered a blow Thursday, when Bermuda ruled out signing an agreement with 10 British-affiliated tax havens planned for Saturday.
Developing world activists are welcoming the scrutiny given tax havens, which tax expert Mike Lewis of ActionAid described as “one of the main obstacles in the fight against global poverty.” That leads into other proposals to improve transparency, such as one that involve making Government data available on the internet or the responsible use of natural and mineral resources, with better accounting for the income they produce.
The civil war in Syria will also be a major issue, Cameron said in parliament Wednesday.
“We should use the G8 to bring pressure on all sides to bring about... a peace process,” he said, announcing that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would be arriving Sunday, a day before the beginning of the summit, for discussions.
But observers expect little progress on Syria. While Britain and France debate arming the rebels, Russia has drawn condemnation from Western countries for its decision to supply the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with advanced weapons, including anti-ship missiles.
US President Barack Obama is likely to face intense questioning about the PRISM information-gathering programme disclosed this month. British European Parliamentarian Claude Moraes last week said the PRISM affair “has caused for our citizens a major breach of trust.” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also wants the G8 to take a stand against nuclear-armed North Korea, which recently test-fired missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Another likely topic is the violent police crackdown on peaceful protests in Turkey, which Cameron on Thursday called “disturbing and concerning.” Alongside the three T’s — trade, tax and transparency — that Cameron has been promoting since last year, he added a fourth on Tuesday: terrorism.
The leaders would examine “how we can work together to tackle the threat of extremism and terrorist violence, particularly across North and West Africa,” he said.
The meeting is intended to showcase Northern Ireland’s transformation, following a 20-year-old peace process after fighting Catholic republican and Protestant unionist terror groups laid down their arms.
Nevertheless, tight security measures have been put in place to prevent potential attacks by anti-capitalist anarchists, Islamic extremists and dissident republicans. The summit is also taking place during marching season, a time of heightened sectarian tension when the Protestant Orange Order marches through Catholic areas.
Around 8,000 police officers, including an extra 3,600 drafted in from England and Wales, will be patrolling the streets. Anarchists already scuffled with police in London ahead of the summit and more protests are expected to take place in Belfast and Enniskillen.
Authorities have emphasized that peaceful protests will be supported.
“We are content to facilitate lawful, peaceful protest,” said superintendent Alan McCrum, the officer in charge of the Belfast operation.