G7-Brazil says to join G7 by right, not invitation "One of the messages we want to give in this meeting is that we greatly appreciate the invitation from rich countries but our expectation for the years ahead is that we will have a G10 or G11 no longer by invitation, but by right,"
Fri Feb 4, 2005 06:17 PM ET
BRASILIA, Brazil, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Brazil expects to join an expanded Group of Seven industrial nations based on its economic power, not because of any invitation from rich nations, Finance Minister Antonio Palocci said on Friday.
Palocci made the comments in London ahead of talks between emerging nations and G7 finance ministers on the global economy. G7 members such as Britain and France have suggested that China, Brazil and India are among natural candidates that could be invited to join the group.
"One of the messages we want to give in this meeting is that we greatly appreciate the invitation from rich countries but our expectation for the years ahead is that we will have a G10 or G11 no longer by invitation, but by right," Palocci told reporters in an interview on Brazilian national television. "This is what we're trying to achieve with changes in the Brazilian economy."
In the past Brazil lacked the economic and industrial power to make such claims, but it now ranks among the so-called BRIC emerging powers -- Brazil, Russia, China and India.
In January investment bank Goldman Sachs said members of the BRIC group would have the greatest economic potential to wield future global influence.
Brazil's two-year-old government has used a mix of hardball trade tactics and orthodox economic policies to win recognition from G7 nations as an emerging power of the 21st century.
A sharp decline in Brazil's debt load and record exports have helped Brazil to decade-high economic growth in 2004.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expects his country to soon have the sixth-largest economy in the world. |
