

The group Attac, which is critical of globalization, has accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of staging a "cynical production" as the G-20 summit opens. Alexis Passadakis of the group says that although Merkel may be positioning herself as the "leader of the free world," with its "multilateral policies for more free trade, the German government is actually pursuing an aggressive export surplus strategy that is creating serious global imbalances, economic instability and political tensions."



From Attac's perspective, the G-20 has "no legitimate foundations in international law." "Instead of effectively disarming the financial markets, he argues the G-20 has rescued neoliberal financial market capitalism at the costs of the lower end of the population. That has led to greater social inequality rather than global equality." He said Attac plans to take to the streets in order to "throw a spanner in the works" of the summit.



Earlier Friday, German Development Minister Gerd Müller called for a strong message about fair trade with Africa to come out of the G-20 summit. "We, the rich nations, made Africa poor. The G-20 could change that," the conservative politician told a network of German regional newspapers. He said a "Marshall Plan" for Africa could be decisive in those efforts. The plan could help to create jobs for an additional 20 million young people per year in Africa, he said. "If they don't find jobs at home, they will leave," he added, alluding to Europe's refugee crisis.



Despite progress that has been made in negotiations on agricultural subsidies in G-20 nations that have a distorting effect, more needs to be done, the minister warned. "Wouldn't it make a lot more sense for us to open our markets to fruit and olives from Tunisia and allowing Tunisians to earn money here rather than sending our tax money to them in the form of aid?" He argued that the G-20 summit needs to ensure that agricultural and trade policies are "harmonized with development policy" in the future.

