G20 Summit 2018: Indias 9-point Agenda on Fugitive Economic Offenders

The 2018 G20 Summit began on November 28, 2018 in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nineteen leaders of the world's biggest economies and a representative of the European Union held a meeting on November 30 as part of the G20 summit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi represented India at the Summit and met US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Argentina President Mauricio Macri, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the sidelines of the summit. 

PM Modi presented a 9-point agenda to G20 Member Nations, calling for strong and active cooperation to deal with fugitive economic offenders. The agenda was presented during the second session of the G20 Summit 2018 on International Trade, International Financial and Tax Systems.

India also called for joint efforts by G-20 countries to form a mechanism that denies entry to fugitive economic offenders.

9-point Agenda on Fugitive Economic Offenders

The agenda reads as, "Cooperation in legal processes such as effective freezing of the proceeds of crime, early return of the offenders and efficient repatriation of the proceeds of crime should be enhanced and streamlined". "Principles of United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNOTC), especially related to 'International Cooperation' should be fully and effectively implemented". The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was called upon to assign priority and focus to establish international cooperation that leads to timely and comprehensive exchange of information between the competent authorities and financial intelligence units. FATF will formulate a standard definition of fugitive economic offenders and should develop a set of commonly agreed and standardised procedures related to identification, extradition and judicial proceedings of fugitive economic offenders and to provide guidance and assistance to G-20 countries. It advocated setting up of a common platform for sharing experiences and best practices including successful cases of extradition, gaps in existing systems of extradition and legal assistance, etc. The G-20 forum should consider initiating work on locating properties of economic offenders who have a tax debt in the country of their residence for its recovery.

G20 Summit 2018

It will be the 13th meeting of Group of Twenty (G20) and the first G20 summit to be hosted in South America.

Argentina is expected to host over 45 meetings at various government levels and areas in 11 different cities throughout the country. President Mauricio Macri of Argentina assumed the presidency of G20 on November 30, 2017 for one year during an official ceremony in Kirchner Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

G20  • Formed in 1999, the G20 is an international forum of the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies. • Collectively, the G20 economies account for around 85 percent of the Gross World Product (GWP), 80 percent of world trade. • To tackle the problems or the address issues that plague the world, the heads of governments of the G20 nations periodically participate in summits. In addition to it, the group also hosts separate meetings of the finance ministers and foreign ministers. • The G20 has no permanent staff of its own and its chairmanship rotates annually between nations divided into regional groupings. • The first G20 Summit was held in Berlin in December 1999 and was hosted by the finance ministers of Germany and Canada. Objective The Group was formed with an aim of studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability. The forum aims to preempt balance of payments problems and turmoil on financial markets by improved coordination of monetary, fiscal, and financial policies. The forum seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organisation. Member Countries The members of the G20 consist of 19 individual countries plus the European Union (EU). The 19 member countries of the forum are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union is represented by the European Commission and by the European Central Bank.