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The economic impact of climate change, rising food prices and a broad range of other trade, growth and development issues were discussed at this year's OECD’s Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) at OECD headquarters in Paris on 4-5 June 2008.
France, represented by Christine Lagarde, Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment, chaired the meeting, with Mexico and Switzerland as Vice-Chairs.
In conjunction with the ministerial meeting, the OECD Forum 2008 held on 3-4 June 2008 in the OECD Conference Centre at OECD headquarters. Government leaders, OECD experts and representatives of business, labour, civil society and the media debated the issues on the ministerial meeting agenda.
On 29 May 2008 at 1.00 p.m., OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and the Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, held a news conference at OECD to present the annual OECD/FAO Agricultural Outlook, covering trends and forecasts in world agriculture, and review the impact of rising food prices. See the news release and highlights.
Ministers from Brazil, India, Indonesia, the People's Republic of China and South Africa were invited to attend the Ministerial Council Meeting, as have ministers from Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia, the five candidate countries for accession to OECD. They were joined for a session on the multilateral trading system by ministers from Argentina and Hong Kong, China.
Representatives from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were invited to attend the ministerial meeting.
Consultations with the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to OECD (BIAC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to OECD (TUAC) took place prior to the ministerial meeting.
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