ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use which G7 governments make of these international economic organisations. It focuses on the G7 governments, asking what they wanted from the organisations and how they got it. The chapter concentrates on the two most influential institutions for mature Western economies: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It looks briefly at institutions of limited membership - the G7 summit itself, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Commonwealth - in relation to the global ones. After the Cold War ended, the IMF and World Bank became truly global organisations, with over 180 members, like the UN itself. For four decades and more, governments traditionally entrusted policy towards international economic organisations to their permanent officials. In both areas - finance and trade - G7 governments made more use of the global institutions than before.
