Group of Seven



The Group of Seven (G7) is an international intergovernmental economic organization consisting of the seven largest IMF-described advanced economies in the world: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; between 1998 and 2014, the group included Russia and was known as the Group of Eight, and had for a year been known as the Group of Six before the 1976 inclusion of Canada.

As of 2018, the seven countries involved represent 58% of the global net wealth ($317 trillion) and more than 46% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) based on nominal values, and more than 32% of the global GDP based on purchasing power parity. The European Union has also been an invitee to G7 summits, and other expanded summits with other nations have met under the banner of the Group of Eight + Five.

With the G20 major economies growing in stature since the 2008 Washington summit, world leaders from the group announced at their Pittsburgh summit in September 2009 that the group would replace the G7 as the main economic council of nations.

History
The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized countries emerged before the 1973 oil crisis. On Sunday, 25 March 1973, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, George Shultz, convened an informal gathering of finance ministers from West Germany Helmut Schmidt, France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and the United Kingdom Anthony Barber before an upcoming meeting in Washington, D.C. When running the idea past President Nixon, he noted that he would be out of town and offered use of the White House. The meeting was subsequently held in the library on the ground floor. Taking their name from the setting, this original group of four became known as the "Library Group". In mid-1973, at the World Bank-IMF meetings, Shultz proposed the addition of Japan to the original four nations, who agreed. The informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, and France became known as the "Group of Five".

Then, in 1974, President Pompidou of France died and his immediate successor refused to run in the special election, making three changes of head of state in France in one year. Chancellor Brandt of West Germany was forced to resign in a scandal, and his successor lasted only nine days making three changes in West Germany as well. In addition, then-President of the United States Richard Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka were forced to resign in disgrace. Queen Elizabeth II was forced to broker a deal to form a government after a hung election, which was so unstable that another election the same year had to take place, and finally, the traditionally unstable government of the 1st Italian Republic changed Prime Ministers yet again. The new American President Gerald Ford, asked some other new heads of state/government to hold a retreat the following year to get to know one another.

In 1975, a summit hosted by France brought together representatives of six governments: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Schmidt and Giscard d'Estaing were heads of government in their respective countries, and since they both spoke fluent English, it occurred to them that they, and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and U.S. President Gerald Ford could get together in an informal retreat and discuss election results and the issues of the day. In late spring, d'Estaing of France invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to a summit in Château de Rambouillet; the annual meeting of the six leaders was organized under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). In 1976, with Wilson out as prime minister of Britain, Schmidt and Gerald Ford felt an English speaker with more experience was needed, so Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, the next largest advanced economy after the first six, was invited to join the group and the group became the Group of Seven (G7). Since first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977, the European Union has been represented by the president of the European Commission and the leader of the country that holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union; the Council President now also regularly attends.

Until the 1985 Plaza Accord no one outside a tight official circle knew when the seven finance ministers met or what they agreed upon. The summit was announced the day before and a communiqué was issued afterwards.

Following 1994's G7 summit in Naples, Russian officials held separate meetings with leaders of the G7 after the group's summits. This informal arrangement was dubbed the Political 8 (P8) – or, colloquially, the G7+1. At the invitation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and President of the United States Bill Clinton, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was invited first as a guest observer, later as a full participant. After the 1997 meeting Russia was formally invited to the next meeting and formally joined the group in 1998, resulting in a new governmental political forum, the Group of Eight or G8. The Russian Federation, in fact, had and has limited net national wealth and financial weight compared to the other members of the G8. Russia also has never been a major advanced economy according to the IMF. However, the Russian Federation was ejected from the G8 political forum in March 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Early function
The organization was founded to facilitate shared macroeconomic initiatives by its members in response to the collapse of the exchange rate 1971, during the time of the Nixon shock, the 1970s energy crisis and the ensuing recession.

Work
Since 1975, the group meets annually on summit site to discuss economic policies; since 1987, the G7 Finance Ministers have met at least semi-annually, up to four times a year at stand-alone meetings.

In 1996, the G7 launched an initiative for the 42 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC).

In 1997, the G7 provided $300 million to the effort to build the containment of the reactor meltdown at Chernobyl.

In 1999, the G7 decided to get more directly involved in "managing the international monetary system" through the Financial Stability Forum, formed earlier in 1999 and the G-20, established following the summit, to "promote dialogue between major industrial and emerging market countries". The G7 also announced their plan to cancel 90% of bilateral, and multilateral debt for the HIPC, totaling $100 billion. In 2005 the G7 announced debt reductions of "up to 100%" to be negotiated on a "case by case" basis.

In 2008 the G7 met twice in Washington, D.C. to discuss the global financial crisis of 2007–2008 and in February 2009 in Rome. The group of finance ministers pledged to take "all necessary steps" to stem the crisis.

On 2 March 2014, the G7 condemned the "Russian Federation's violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine." The G7 stated "that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remains the institution best prepared to help Ukraine address its immediate economic challenges through policy advice and financing, conditioned on needed reforms", and that the G7 was "committed to mobilize rapid technical assistance to support Ukraine in addressing its macroeconomic, regulatory and anti-corruption challenges." On 24 March 2014, the G7 convened an emergency meeting in response to the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea at the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the Catshuis in The Hague. This location was chosen because all G7 leaders were already present to attend the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit hosted by the Netherlands. This was the first G7 meeting neither taking place in a member nation nor having the host leader participating in the meeting. On 4 June 2014 leaders at the G7 summit in Brussels, condemned Moscow for its "continuing violation" of Ukraine's sovereignty, in their joint statement and stated they were prepared to impose further sanctions on Russia. This meeting was the first since Russia was expelled from the G8 following its annexation of Crimea in March.

The annual G7 leaders summit is attended by the heads of government. The member country holding the G7 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the year's summit. The serial annual summits can be parsed chronologically in arguably distinct ways, including as the sequence of host countries for the summits has recurred over time and series. Generally every country hosts the summit once every 7 years.

Member country data
The G7 is composed of the seven wealthiest advanced countries. The People's Republic of China, according to its data, would be the second-largest with 16.4% of the world net wealth, but is excluded because the IMF and other main global institutions do not consider China an advanced country and because of its relatively low net wealth per adult and HDI. As of 2017 Crédit Suisse reports the G7 (without the European Union) represents above 62% of the global net wealth. Including the EU the G7 represents over 70% of the global net wealth.

Member facts

 * 7 of the 7 top-ranked advanced economies with the current largest GDP and with the highest national wealth (United States, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada).
 * 7 of the 15 top-ranked countries with the highest net wealth per capita (United States, France, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Germany).
 * 7 of 10 top-ranked leading export countries.
 * 5 of 10 top-ranked countries with the largest gold reserves (United States, Germany, Italy, France, Japan).
 * 7 of 10 top-ranked economies (by nominal GDP), according to latest (2016 data) International Monetary Fund's statistics.
 * 3 countries with a nominal GDP per capita above US$40,000 (United States, Canada, Germany).
 * 4 countries with a sovereign wealth fund, administered by either a national or a state/provincial government (United States, France, Canada, Italy).
 * 7 of 30 top-ranked nations with large amounts of foreign-exchange reserves in their central banks.
 * 3 out of 9 countries having nuclear weapons (France, UK, United States), plus 2 countries that have nuclear weapon sharing programs (Germany, Italy).
 * 6 of the 9 largest nuclear energy producers (United States, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, UK), although Germany announced in 2011 that it will close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors. However, Japan restarted several nuclear reactors, with the refueling of other reactors underway.
 * 7 of the 10 top donors to the UN budget for the 2016 annual fiscal year.
 * 6 countries with a HDI index for 2017 of 0.9 and higher (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France).
 * 2 countries with the highest credit rating from Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's at the same time (Canada and Germany).
 * 3 countries are constitutional monarchies (United Kingdom, Canada, Japan), 2 are presidential republics (France, United States) and the other 2 are parliamentary republics (Germany and Italy).

Special Invitations
French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of the G7 summit held in Biarritz in August 2019, has also invited non-member countries who are playing an important part in world politics. The invited guest nations include India, Australia, Spain, Chile, South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Iran and Rwanda.

2014 suspension and following exclusion of Russian Federation
In March 2014 the Russian Federation was suspended by G7 members from the political forum G8 following the annexation of Crimea. After the suspension, on January 2017 the Russian Federation decided permanently to leave the G8. It was confirmed in June 2018.

2015 protests
About 7,500 protesters led by the group 'Stop-G7' demonstrated during the summit. About 300 of those managed to reach the 3 m high and 7 km long security fence surrounding the summit location despite Germany's immense efforts to prevent it and despite its remote location – the luxury hotel Schloss Elmau at the foot of the Wetterstein mountains (altitude of 1008 m above sea level). The protesters questioned the legitimacy of the G7 to make decisions that could affect the whole world. Authorities had banned demonstrations in the closer area of the summit location and 20,000 policemen were on duty in Southern Bavaria to keep activists and protesters from interfering with the summit.

2018 Trump conflict over tariffs and Russia
The 2018 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada, was marred by fractious negotiations concerning tariffs and Donald Trump's unorthodox position that Russia should be reinstated to the G7. The Trump administration had just imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on many countries, including European countries that are fellow members of the G7, and Canada, the host country for the 2018 meeting. Trump arrived late, left the meeting early, expressed dismay at Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau for holding a press conference in which Canada restated its position on tariffs (a public criticism of Trump's economic policy), and directed his representatives at the meeting to not sign the economic section of the joint communiqué that is typically issued at the conclusion of the meeting. An opinion writer at the Washington Post, Max Boot, opined that Trump had turned the meeting into a confrontation between the "G-6 versus the G-1."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Trump's behavior as a "depressing withdrawal," while French President Emmanuel Macron invited him "to be serious." In the final statement signed by all members except the US, G7 announced its intention to recall sanctions and to be ready to take further restrictive measures within the next months against the Russian Federation for its failure to completely implement the Minsk Agreement.

Trump repeated calls for Russia to be re-admitted to the group in the 2019 meeting in Biarritz, saying it should be included in discussions relating to Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte supported Trump's proposal, Shinzo Abe of Japan was neutral, and the rest of the G7 pushed back against the suggestion, after which the atmosphere allegedly became "tense".

2019 Amazon rainforest fires and Brazil
U.S. President Donald Trump's reiteration of Russia's readmission to the group (see above), instigation of a trade war with China, increased tensions in Iran, Trump's alleged reticence to attend the conference and a number of international crises made the 2019 G7 meeting in Biarritz, France the most divided since the inception its founding. Following Trump's previous rescinding of his signature to a joint communiqué agreed in 2018 due to an alleged slight from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (see above), French President Emmanuel Macron agreed that the group would not issue a joint communiqué at the Biarritz conference.

The G7 nations pledged US$20 million to help Brazil and other countries in South America to fight the wildfires. This money was welcomed, although many critics saw the measure as being too little, too late. Macron threatened to block a major trade deal between European Union and Brazil (Mercosur) that would benefit the very agricultural interests accused of driving deforestation.