- Title: FRANCE: G-7 CONFERENCE AIMED AT TACKLING UNEMPLYMENT
- Date: 1st April 1996
- Summary: LILLE, FRANCE (APRIL 1, 1996) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV EXTERIOR CONFERENCE CENTRE WITH FLAGS/CU CONFERENCE LOGO (2 SHOTS) 0.05 2. SV SECURITY OUTSIDE CONFERENCE CENTRE 0.14 3. SV JAPANESE EMPLOYMENT MINISTER TAKANOBU NAGAI ARRIVING 0.21 4. SV GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTER GUNTER REXRODT ARRIVING 0.29 5. SVS BRITISH EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT MINISTER GILLIAN SHEPHARD ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 0.41 6. SV UNITED STATES COMMERCE SECRETARY RON BROWN ARRIVING 0.43 7. SV FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC ARRIVING AND GREETED BY LILLE MAYOR FORMER SOCIALIST PRIME MINISTER PIERRE MAUROY 0.55 8. SV MINISTER IN FOYER 1.07 9. MCU FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC ADDRESSING CONFERENCE SAYING UNEMPLOYMENT OR LACK OF JOB SECURITY DEPENDS ON WHICH SIDE OF THE ATLANTIC YOU LOOK AT IT (FRENCH) 1.25 10. SVS/LVS MINISTERS SEATED ROUND TABLE FOR TALKS (5 SHOTS) 1.40 11. MCU GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTER GUNTHER REXRODT SAYING COMPETITIVE COMPANIES ARE ABLE TO MAKE JOBS (ENGLISH) 1.58 12. MCU BROWN SAYING WE ALL CAN LEARN FROM EACH OTHER. BUT IT SEEMS TO ME WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE LAST THREE YEARS, THE UNITED STATES HAS CREATED ALL OF THE NEW EIGHT MILLION JOBS IN THE G-7 COUNTRIES. AND YOU'D ASSUME THAT THE OTHER COUNTRIES WOULD WANT TO EMULATE THAT (ENGLISH) 2.29 13. HAS/SV CGT (CONFEDERATION GENERALE DES TRAVAILLISTS) DEMONSTRATION IN STREET (3 SHOTS) 2.37 15. SV DEMONSTRATORS BEATING DRUMS AND SINGING 2.49 16. LAS DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING THROUGH SQUARE 2.50 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 16th April 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LILLE, FRANCE
- City:
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA2YWHWXMVHVK05V3ILM4TW3ZSV
- Story Text: INTRO: The world's seven richest industrial nations have begun a conference in France aimed at tackling unemployment. But they are divided over how their job-creation policies should be updated to cope with rapid globalisation and the spread of new technology.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Ministers from the seven countries of the so-called G-7 group of industrialised nations were meeting in Lille in northern France on Monday (April 1) in a bid to find new ways to combat unemployment.
The conference has been organised by French President Jacques Chirac who made the problem the main plank of his Presidential candidacy, and wants his colleagues in Italy, Germany, Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada, to give it top priority too.
But there was disappointment at the level of seniority of some of the ministers attending the talks, which were supposed to get employment and finance ministers together under the one roof.
While all seven countries sent their employment ministers to Lille, only France saw fit to have its finance minister present.
The rest provided deputies, raising question marks over the G-7's commitment to the problem of unemployment.
There is also a great gulf between the number out of work in Japan and the United States (3.3 and 5.5 per cent respectively) to those registered unemployed in France (11.8 per cent) and Italy (12.2 per cent).
While the United States argues competition is all-important in creating extra jobs, its allies in mainland Europe remain reluctant to abandon post-World War Two welfare policies which cushion their far greater numbers of unemployed.
President Chirac warned there were two different faces to the threat of joblessness -- unemployment itself, or the lack of job security, depending on which side of the Atlantic you lived on.
United States Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said he assumed Europe would want to emulate the eight and a half million jobs that had been created in the United States.
Brown had earlier said Europe and the United States could learn from one another. He also confirmed that he expected the United States would grant "most favoured nation" status to China although the United States was "displeased" with the tension China had aroused over Taiwan.
Lille was chosen as venue for the conference because of its high numbers out of work -- 15 per cent of the population.
In Lille on Monday several thousand trade unionists from France, Belgium and Britain demonstrated in Lille against the meeting on unemployment of G7.
The trade unionists' leaflets said "we do not accept 20 million unemployed, 55 million poor, more and more people excluded from society and a reduction of salaries" CGT (Confederation Generale des Travaillists') leader Secretary General Jean-Paul Guerin said he was "frightened that the meeting would do nothing and that it was development it was sacrificing".
At the meeting German Economy Minister Gunther Rexrodt's recipe for job creation was to deregulate structures to create competitive companies because "competitive companies create jobs".
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