The International Perspective
Interview with Peter Sutherland
Chairman of Goldman Sachs International
Chairman of The London School of Economics
Peter Sutherland is one of Ireland’s most
accomplished figures. A barrister by profession,
Sutherland was appointed to the position of
Attorney General in both of the governments
led by Garret FitzGerald in the 1980s. He
was subsequently appointed to the European
Commission and became responsible for
competition policy. This was a defining role
in his career which opened the way for him to
play a number of very important roles on the
international stage, not least of which was his
success at concluding the Uruguay Round of
the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade
(GATT), the predecessor of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), of which Sutherland went
on to become Director General. These high profile
accomplishments did not go unnoticed, and led to
him taking on a variety of positions, one of which
was the role of Chairman at British Petroleum
(BP). Currently, he is Chairman of Goldman Sachs
International, a member of the Board of Allianz and
is Chairman of the London School of Economics.
What do you think of the EU/IMF
package?
Leaving aside the issue of interest rates, which
is a substantive issue that I won’t address here,
the terms do not seem particularly surprising. It
is absolutely inevitable that when assistance is
required from the IMF and the EU, it won’t be
provided unconditionally. The budget deficit is our
responsibility as a member of the Eurozone, and
it’s been made abundantly clear that the precise
make up of how the budget deficit will be addressed,
whether through expenditure cuts or taxation and
where precisely expenditure cuts will take place or