Lee sees peer pressure enforcing G20 deal

President Lee Myung-bak is counting on “peer pressure” to enforce any currency deal made among the leaders of the Group of 20 nations this week.

Lee said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Saturday that any deal to be reached at the Nov. 11-12 G20 summit in Seoul would not be enforceable in the way trade decisions were enforced by the World Trade Organization.

“There aren’t any legal obligations,” he was quoted as saying.

But the months of discussion among G20 countries would produce “a peer-pressure kind of effect on these countries” that violated the deal, he told the newspaper.

“There is a common understanding that if we do not work among ourselves, we fear we will return to protectionist measures.”