14th G7 summit

14th G7 summit
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Front Steet entrance
Host country	Canada
Dates	June 19–20, 1988
Venue(s)	Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Cities	Toronto, Ontario
Follows	15th G7 summit
Precedes	13th G7 summit

The 14th G7 Summit was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between June 19 and 21, 1988. The venue for the summit meetings was the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in central Toronto.^[1]

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976)^[2] and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981).^[3] The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.^[4]

Unlike the relatively low key summit at Château Montebello in 1981, the Toronto summit was held under tight security with involvement of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Metro Toronto Police.

Canada was the first member of the G7/G8 to host both this kind of Summit and an Olympic Games in the same calendar year. In February, Calgary, Alberta, hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. Canada would do this again 22 years when they hosted the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia and then the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario.

Leaders at the summit

Summit leaders at the University of Toronto: (left to right) Jacques Delors, Ciriaco De Mita, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, Francois Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl and Noboru Takeshita.

The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.^[3]

This was the last G7 summit in which Reagan participated.^[5]

Core G7 participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:^[6]

Core G7 members Host nation and leader are indicated in bold text.
Member		Represented by	Title
	Canada	Brian Mulroney [1]	Prime Minister
	France	François Mitterrand [1]	President
	West Germany	Helmut Kohl [1]	Chancellor
	Italy	Ciriaco de Mita [1]	Prime Minister
	Japan	Noboru Takeshita [1]	Prime Minister
	United Kingdom	Margaret Thatcher [1]	Prime Minister
	United States	Ronald Reagan [1]	President
	European Commission	Jacques Delors [7]	President

Issues

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.^[4] Issues which were discussed at this summit included:

• International Economic Policy Cooperation
• Multilateral Trading System / Uruguay Round
• Newly Industrialized Economies
• Developing Countries and Debt
• Environment
• Future Summits
• Other Issues
• Annex on Structural Reform

See also

• G8
• 2010 G-20 Toronto summit

Notes

References

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. 10-ISBN 0-7546-1185-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-7546-1185-1; OCLC 43186692
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0-415-16486-9/13-ISBN 978-0-415-16486-3; 13-ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7;10-ISBN 0-203-45085-X; OCLC 39013643

External links

• No official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 -- see the 21st G7 summit.
• University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre
  • G7 1988, delegations & documents
• CBC Digital Archives: "Leaders arrive at 1988 G7 Summit in Toronto," Broadcast Date: June 18, 1988.