By Dr. Emily J. Blanchard, Dartmouth College — The Conversation US — 11 June 2021
The Group of 7 is an informal group of seven powerful democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The United Kingdom and The United States. The presidents of the European Commission and European Council also attend G-7 meetings. Membership, decided internally, has not changed much since the group’s founding in 1975 — originally with six members; Canada joined a year later. Russia joined as an eighth member in 1998, temporarily creating the G-8, but was ousted after it annexed Crimea in 2014.
Together, the seven wealthy nations form the foundation of the modern global economy and the cooperative rules-based system on which it is built. G-7 countries account for about 40% of the world economy, down from nearly 70% a few decades ago. Their economic might remains undeniable, not least because they are at the forefront of technological innovation and industrial know-how, and their economies are inextricably interwoven with global supply chains. A policy change or economic shock in one G-7 country will have ripple effects across the globe.
The G-7 may be the best hope for quick, decisive and meaningful policy action on pressing global problems. While it lacks the institutional clout of the United Nations, the WTO or NATO, it also lacks their institutional red tape and bureaucracy. An example of meaningful action was the 5 June 2021 announcement of agreement on global minimum corporate tax rates — a watershed moment in international taxation that could mean the end of tax havens and a dramatic shift in how companies record their profits worldwide. At the Cornwall summit, the G-7 also called for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait for the first time in the group’s communiqué, and pledged 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world’s poorest countries.