CHAPTER FIVE - REFORMING THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY AND FINANCIAL SYSTEM:
TOWARDS STABILITY AND THE GLOBAL GOOD

5. TOWARDS A "HALIFAX ACCORD" In areas as controversial as those outlined in the preceding Chapters, the Committee is under no illusions that agreement on appropriate remedies will be easily reached at Halifax. Moreover, as the government is aware, this stage will still represent only the beginning of what must be a larger international process reaching far beyond the confines of the G-7. Notwithstanding that, we are strongly of the view that it is in Canada's interests to use to maximum advantage the opportunity presented by the June Summit to advance the basis for a framework agreement to pursue key proposals for reforming the global monetary and financial system in ways that benefit all countries and the world economy as a whole.

Therefore, the Committee, highlighting the importance of these issues for Canada's domestic economic security as well as for global welfare, recommends that the Government propose to Summit leaders a ``Halifax Accord on International Monetary and Financial Reforms''. Under the terms of this Accord, the G-7 would agree to pursue active consultations, with other member countries of the Bretton Woods institutions, in order to report specific findings to the next Summit as the basis for concerted action in the following areas:

• the improvement of modes of international cooperation in order to achieve a greater consistency around sound macro-economic policies;

• the enhancement of the surveillance and resource capacities of a reformed IMF in order to improve its role in both preventing, and responding to, problems which threaten systemic stability;

• the practical implementation of measures to stabilize currency and capital markets, and in particular to supply those markets with timely disclosure of sufficient and reliable information;

• the design of possible initiatives to increase the availability of secure sources of international finance for global development purposes; and

• the coordination of the activities of the major public authorities, including central banks, within a coherent and strengthened global regime of financial oversight and supervision.