G8 to Establish Trust Fund to Dampen Oil Shocks

11 June 2005

AFP. The G8 nations today invited oil producing and other states to contribute to a trust fund that will help nations survive shocks in oil prices and other commodities.

Britain’s finance minister Gordon Brown unveiled the trust fund following a meeting of the world’s G8 group of rich countries which agreed to a debt cancellation deal for the world's poorest countries.

“We’re also setting up today a trust fund to deal with countries that are affected by commodity like oil price shocks,” Brown told a news conference after a meeting with his G8 counterparts.

“And we’re inviting voluntary contributions from the oil producing states and other countries to support countries facing commodity and other shocks,” said Brown, whose country is chairing the G8 group this year.

No word yet on the size, process, and so on.

The G8 is composed of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia. The finance ministers were paving the way for a meeting of the leaders of those countries July 6-8 in Gleneagles, Scotland.