By Matt Falloon
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Countries with large current account surpluses know they must do their bit to boost demand to make up for a more cautious U.S. consumer, British finance minister Alistair Darling told Reuters Non Wednesday.
In an interview ahead of the G20 summit of developed and emerging economies in Pittsburgh this week, Darling said he expected world leaders to commit to removing stimulus from their recession-hit economies only when recovery was assured.
Darling also believes the G20, having dealt with tax havens, will turn its focus to offshore regulatory havens that can pose risks to the financial system.
Darling's remarks followed U.S. President Barack Obama's call this week for a reshaping of the global economy after decades of U.S. over-consumption. Obama said countries such as China or Germany could not go back to relying on Americans buying their goods while the U.S. sold nothing in return.
"We've got to have a new framework for growth where every country in the world recognises it has a responsibility to make sure that we can maintain demand," Darling said.
"I think they (surplus nations) know full well that if you take America, if the American consumer saves more and decides to be more cautious ... then there's got to be other sources of growth and that means international co-operation."
Darling admitted that there was a long way to go to fix those global imbalances but said the G20 must "send a clear signal to the world" that it was acting to secure recovery.
Analysts say those imbalances -- where some countries rely too heavily on exports and others rely too much on spending and debt -- can only seriously be addressed when currencies are put on the table for discussion.
"I don't think the currencies will be discussed over the coming weekend," Darling said. "I think what we are talking about is a framework looking at some of the bigger issues ... It's not on people's minds at the moment."
EXIT STRATEGIES
Another issue is choosing the right time to start withdrawing costly stimulus measures that were needed to revive growth but are now weighing down government balance sheets.
In London earlier this month, G20 finance ministers agreed to commit to co-ordinated, exit strategies but only when the global recovery was assured.
"I am pretty sure this weekend the leaders will take exactly the same view," Darling said. "They'll want to do it in a co-ordinated way but also in a way that does not damage their economies."
"What people have said is, yes, we do need an exit strategy (but) the time has to be right. We've got to see this through first of all because withdrawing support prematurely would be disastrous."
Britain is also pushing for action to be taken against offshore regulatory havens that could pose systemic risks because they can allow financial institutions to avoid disclosing information to watchdogs in other countries.
"The majority of my colleagues (G20) entirely agree that we have got to crack down on these offshore regulatory havens with the same vigour as we're cracking down on offshore tax havens," Darling said.
UK officials said G20 leaders could instruct their finance ministers to look into ways to tackle regulatory havens at their forthcoming November meeting, with the aim of drawing up a provisional blacklist of countries, criteria and sanctions.
"If they are not prepared to disclose their information ... then you are blacklisted or there will be increased capital requirements perhaps on businesses that operate in those areas," Darling said. (Editing by Stephen Nisbet)