BERLIN (MNI) – The following is the second part of a verbatim text
of a joint press release by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, OECD
Secretary-General Angel Gurria, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, ILO
Director-General Juan Somavia, IMF Managing Director Dominique
Strauss-Kahn and World Bank President Robert Zoellick:

3. We welcome the fact that most countries have refrained from
implementing protectionist measures, thereby helping to avoid a general
tendency towards protectionism. However, the potential of multilateral
trade liberalization was not sufficiently realized as a means of
contributing to global economic recovery.

Therefore, we appeal to all WTO partners to do all they can to
ensure the success of the Doha Round and to strive for the adoption of
modalities as soon as possible. The multilateral approach to trade
liberalization will continue to play a significant role in the future
too as a means of ensuring fair competition, preventing trade
distortions and creating new market opportunities, especially for
developing countries.

4. Only a sustainable global economy can continue to guarantee
growing wealth without jeopardizing the chance for future generations to
meet their own needs. The G20 Framework for Strong, Sustainable and
Balanced Growth, to which the international organizations make important
contributions, will support this idea by macroeconomic, fiscal and
structural policies.

Moreover, we need an overarching consensus, supported by states and
international organizations, that helps prevent excesses in the market
and works to counter future crises. Therefore, a dialogue process in the
G20 on important policy areas in this respect could be helpful.
International organizations expertise could provide valuable input for
this process.

5. When contemplating new sources of growth, economically advanced
countries in particular have to focus on new areas, such as cutting-edge
technologies, new ways of turning ideas into market success and concepts
like “green growth. Innovative approaches like these could help expedite
economic recovery, also on a global scale.

As another lesson of the crisis, we should consider expanding our
traditional concepts of growth. GDP, as the main indicator of economic
development, could be complemented by including appropriate social,
employment and environmental components. The work by the Stiglitz
Commission will be continued, hosted by OECD. Experts in Germany and
France will draft a report on a complementary growth concept by the end
of this year.

6. The global fight against climate change must remain a top
priority. Last years UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen did not
achieve the progress we had hoped for. We must continue and strengthen
our shared commitment to ambitious global climate targets on the basis
of common but differentiated responsibilities.

We will work for substantive progress at the Bonn Ministerial
Conference in May. We welcome that climate protection is increasingly
finding its way into the work programmes of international organizations;
on this issue, it is crucial to continue building an effective network
among different organizations and with governments.

7. The financial crisis and the global economic downturn have had
far-reaching effects, especially on developing countries. Against this
background, we welcome the international communitys considerable
financial efforts and political commitment to its goals of fighting
poverty and promoting economic development in poorer countries, thereby
resolutely advancing the implementation of the Millennium Development
Goals.

To guarantee the sustainable development of the global economy in
the long run, it is of paramount importance that the trust-based
dialogue between developed countries and emerging economies continues.
By further intensifying their own cooperation, the IMF, the World Bank,
the ILO, the OECD and the WTO can continue to be valuable partners for
governments when it comes to designing a more sustainable global
economy. We ask the Canadian and Korean hosts of this years G20 summits
to devote special attention to this matter.

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