G8 can weep together, or fight together

(breakingviews.com) -- The annual G8 summit could be a time for mutual commiseration. The leaders of rich countries who will gather in Italy this week share many economic woes. From London to Paris and Washington to Moscow, what used to be different "models" or economic systems are converging fast on the way down. It would be tempting to trade moans about bank bailouts and bankruptcies, shrinking GDPs and widening deficits.

But the G8 leaders should do more. To start, they might listen to the leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, who will also be meeting next door. Following a new tradition, the rich world summit has de facto widened to include that up-and-coming G5. Obama, Medvedev, Merkel, Brown and their colleagues can learn that their problems won't be solved unless the rest of the world's are too.

They could also listen to the twin warnings against protectionism issued over the weekend. Both Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, and Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization, know protectionism when they see it. They were once partners and sometimes adversaries in the world trade negotiations -- when Zoellick was the U.S. trade representative, and Lamy the European Union commissioner in charge of trade.

In their current jobs, the two men look at the economic tempest from a global perspective, and they don't like what they see. Zoellick sent a letter to G8 leaders asking them not to proclaim the end of the recession too early, because their stimulus packages are still needed in the rest of the world. Lamy warned that bank bailouts, which often force banks to regroup on their national territories, could pose a risk to world trade. Protectionism, he added, still is a most severe threat, and "a terrible disease".

The G8 final declaration will include, as usual, a now-compulsory sentence about the necessary fight against protectionism. But beyond the automatic and diplomatic niceties, it's what G8 leaders do when they're back home that matters -- whether or not they'll keep to their word on trade. As the hardships mount, the commitment will be more difficult to keep. This week could be a good time to build some mutual support.