    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 16, 1998]
    [Pages 779-780]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Birmingham Group of Eight Summit Statement
    May 16, 1998

    Drugs and International Crime

        1. Globalisation has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in
    transnational crime. This takes many forms, including trafficking in
    drugs and weapons; smuggling of human beings; the abuse of new
    technologies to steal, defraud and evade the law; and the laundering of
    the proceeds of crime.
        2. Such crimes pose a threat not only to our own citizens and their
    communities, through lives blighted by drugs and societies living in
    fear of organised crime; but also a global threat which can undermine
    the democratic and economic basis of societies through the investment of
    illegal money by international cartels, corruption, a weakening of
    institutions and a loss of confidence in the rule of law.
        3. To fight this threat, international cooperation is indispensable.
    We ourselves, particularly since the Lyon summit in 1996, have sought
    ways to improve that cooperation. Much has already been achieved. We
    acknowledge the work being done in the UN, the EU and by other regional
    groupings. We welcome the steps undertaken by the G8 Lyon Group to
    implement its 40 Recommendations on transnational organised crime and
    the proposals G8 Justice and Interior Ministers announced at their
    meeting in Washington last December. By working together, our countries
    are helping each other catch criminals and break up cartels. But more
    needs to be done. There must be no safe havens either for criminals or
    for their money.
        4. We have therefore agreed a number of further actions to tackle
    this threat more effectively:
        --We fully support efforts to negotiate within the next two years an
            effective United Nations convention against transnational
            organised crime that will provide our law enforcement
            authorities with the additional tools they need.
        --We agree to implement rapidly the ten principles and ten point
            action plan agreed by our Ministers on high tech crime. We call
            for close cooperation with industry to reach agreement on a
            legal framework for obtaining, presenting and preserving
            electronic data as evidence, while maintaining appropriate
            privacy protection, and agreements on sharing evidence of those
            crimes with international partners. This will help us combat a
            wide range of crime, including abuse of the internet and other
            new technologies.
        We welcomed the FATF decision to continue and enlarge its work to
    combat money-laundering in partnership with regional groupings. We place
    special emphasis on the issues of money laundering and financial crime,
    including issues raised by offshore financial centres. We welcome the
    proposal to hold in Moscow in 1999 a Ministerial meeting on combating
    transnational crime. We agreed to establish Financial Intelligence Units
    (FIUs) where we do not already have them, in line with our national

    [[Page 780]]

    constitutions and legal systems, to collect and analyse information on
    those engaged in money laundering and liaise with the equivalent
    agencies in partner countries. We agreed on principles and the need for
    adequate legislation to facilitate asset confiscation from convicted
    criminals, including ways to help each other trace, freeze and
    confiscate those assets, and where possible, in accordance with national
    legislation, share seized assets with other nations.
        --We agree on the need to explore ways of combating official
            corruption arising from the large flows of criminal money.
        --We are deeply concerned by all forms of trafficking of human
            beings including the smuggling of migrants. We agreed to joint
            action to combat trafficking in women and children, including
            efforts to prevent such crimes, protect victims and prosecute
            the traffickers. We commit ourselves to develop a
            multidisciplinary and comprehensive strategy, including
            principles and an action plan for future cooperation amongst
            ourselves and with third countries, including countries of
            origin, transit and destination, to tackle this problem. We
            consider the future comprehensive UN organised crime convention
            an important instrument for this purpose.
        --We endorse joint law enforcement action against organised crime
            and welcome the cooperation between competent agencies in
            tackling criminal networks. We agree to pursue further action,
            particularly in dealing with major smuggling routes and
            targeting specific forms of financial fraud.
        --We endorse the Lyon Group's principles and action plan to combat
            illegal manufacturing and trafficking of firearms. We welcome
            its agreement to work towards the elaboration of a binding
            international legal instrument in the context of the UN
            transnational organised crime convention.
        5. We urge the Lyon Group to intensify its on-going work and ask our
    Ministers to report back to our next Summit on progress on the action
    plan on high tech crime, the steps taken against money laundering and
    the joint action on trafficking in human beings. We also welcome the
    steps agreed by our Environment Ministers on 5 April to combat
    environmental crime.
        6. There is a strong link between drugs and wider international and
    domestic crime. We welcome the forthcoming UNGASS on drugs. This should
    signal the international community's determination in favour of a
    comprehensive strategy to tackle all aspects of the drugs problem. For
    its part, the G8 is committed to partnership and shared responsibility
    in the international community to combat illicit drugs. This should
    include reinforced cooperation to curb illicit trafficking in drugs and
    chemical precursors, action to reduce demand in our countries, including
    through policies to reduce drug dependency, and support for a global
    approach to eradicating illicit crops. We welcome the UNDCP's global
    approach to eliminating or significantly reducing illicit drug
    production, where appropriate through effective alternative development
    programmes.

    16 May 1998

    Note: This statement was made available by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on May 16 but was not issued as a White House press release.
    An original was not available for verification of the content of this
    statement.