Sarkozy appeals for G20 moves on food prices, reform

PARIS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy called yesterday for an open G20 discussion of monetary reform and regulation of commodity markets, saying food price rises risked causing riots.

Sarkozy, who was spelling out France’s goals this year as holder of the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 economic powers, said agricultural commodity prices had recently topped the peaks that sparked riots in 2008.’If we don’t do anything we run the risk of food riots in the poorest countries and a very unfavourable effect on global economic growth,’ he said in an address at the Elysee Palace in Paris. ‘The day there are food riots, what country at the G20 table will say this does not concern them? I don’t see a single one.’He also called again for an international financial transaction tax to help meet goals of finding US$100 billion a year to fund development at a time when many countries who made those promises are deep in debt. Sarkozy furthermore said he has asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to co-preside a working group on reform of the international monetary system. He said the reform won’t call into question the dollar’s ‘pre-eminent role’ in the international monetary system: ‘The dollar is and will remain the predominant currency.’France presides over the G20 and Group of Eight big economies this year. – Nampa-Reuters-AP