Asian countries want greater decision-making role

WASHINGTON (AP) – Asian leaders gathering at next week’s economic summit in Pittsburgh will be demanding a greater voice in the way global financial institutions make crucial decisions. Likewise, the world’s established powers will have some demands of their own for the rising Asian nations.

The Western countries who traditionally have wielded power at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations will want Asia to cut greenhouse gases blamed for dangerous climate change and to slash barriers that prevent free trade.

China, with its powerful economy and diplomatic and military strength, will be a leading player at the summit. The other Asian-Pacific G-20 nations — Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and Indonesia — believe their growing importance deserves a bigger say in the world’s financial decision-making.

The G-20, which represents 80 percent of the world’s economic output, is where they will make their case.

“Broadly, they’re looking for more input on how the world runs,” said Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank.

It remains to be seen how successful Asian countries will be at getting their points across at a gathering that features 20 leading rich and developing nations, all with competing national interests and often with little in common.

Asia has done well, comparatively, during the world economic crisis. But the region has been criticized for protecting its trade and agricultural industries from competition. At the Pittsburgh conference on Thursday and Friday, the West will want Asia to help jump-start stalled world trade liberalization talks, to increase imports and to reduce large trade surpluses.

Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said major questions will be: “`What are you doing to stimulate your economy?’ — and some of them are doing quite a bit — and `What more can you do?’”

Asia will also face questions over climate change. Many argue that if Asia does not make cuts to emissions, progress will stall.

Pittsburgh marks one of the last chances world leaders will have to generate momentum before a UN conference in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Countries hope to forge a new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Already some leaders worry that disputes among industrialized and developing nations over cuts to emissions threaten to ruin a deal in Copenhagen.