ABSTRACT
The G7 summits have always treated trade very differently from finance. The summits were created by a group of finance ministers promoted to become heads of state or government. The very first summit (Rambouillet 1975, arguably the most successful1) was summoned by President Valery Giscard d’Estaing of France to resolve a monetary and financial crisis. The influence of the first generation of leaders persisted into the 1980s. When none of them survived at the summit, their successors as finance ministers reasserted their authority. They created their own G7 group, got certain topics delegated to them from the summit (such as macroeconomic policy co-ordination), and ensured that others only came to the summit through them. Even the last three summits — Birmingham 1998 to Okinawa 2000-where the heads have met on their own, have endorsed on each occasion one or more reports sent forward by their finance ministers.2
