G7 Jobs Conference (Hansard, 17 March 1994)

§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke

The Secretary of State for Employment and I attended the G7 jobs conference in Detroit on 14 to 15 March. Finance and Labour Ministers of the G7, together with some Economics Ministers and representatives of the European Union, attended this meeting, which was opened by President Clinton and presided over by Vice-President Gore. It was the first meeting of G7 Finance and Labour Ministers.

In his keynote opening speech President Clinton said that, in a world of accelerating technological advance, the major countries had to face a choice between protectionism and following the path of change. He said that America had chosen the latter. The President emphasised that people needed to be prepared for a higher skill world; to be ready to change jobs many times in a career; and to change attitudes towards employment of both the young and the old. In conclusion, he believed that the industrialised countries should discuss these issues because it would become easier for them to adopt the right policies at home if they were a part of an international consensus.

There was widespread support for these sentiments throughout the rest of the conference. None of the Ministers supported protectionism. The Secretary of State for Employment and I emphasised the need for sound macroeconomic policies to achieve sustainable growth, open and competitive economies with no protectionism to encourage innovation and enterprise, the importance of improved education and training and active labour market policies, together with flexible labour markets, the need to reduce the costs of employment, and the vital role of small and medium-sized enterprises.

US Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen read out a chairman's statement on behalf of the G7 at the end of the conference. A copy of this has been placed in the Library of the House. The chairman's statement supports the principles and policies that the Secretary of State for Employment and I advocated. It ends with a request for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to examine the relationship between productivity, job creation and technology, especially information technology; and to expand its analysis of data on job creation and job loss. The Ministers present agreed to send employment experts to learn about the employment and training programmes of the others.

I believe that this unique conference was very valuable. It will ensure that policies to reduce unemployment will be high on the agenda of G7 Governments, and will be discussed by Heads of Government at the forthcoming G7 economic summit in Naples. Examining and assessing the policies of other countries and achieving a wide measure of agreement on the way ahead will help our Governments to implement the policies necessary to reduce unemployment. The UK Government are absolutely committed to 825W co-operating with this policy agenda in the G7 and the European Union, and to strengthening policies that will reduce unemployment.