G20 Summit Agrees On Large Company Tax Of Minimum 15 Percent, Applicable Everywhere Starting In 2023

G20 Summit in Rome, Italy. (Source: www.g20.org)

JAKARTA - Leaders of G20 countries agreed on a global minimum tax, to stop big businesses from hiding profits in tax havens, also agreed to provide more COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries.

Attending their first face-to-face meeting in two years, G20 leaders broadly supported calls for extended debt relief for poor countries, pledging to vaccinate 70 percent of the world's population against COVID-19 by mid-2022.

However, with a landmark UN climate conference set to kick off soon, the G20 appears to be struggling to put its weight behind the sort of powerful new measures scientists say are needed to prevent damaging global warming.

Italy, which is hosting the meeting in Rome, put health and the economy at the top of the agenda for the first day of the meeting, with more difficult climate discussions set for Sunday.

Underscoring the way the coronavirus crisis has ended the world, doctors in white coats and Red Cross workers joined leaders for their traditional "family" photos, a tribute to the sacrifices and efforts of medics around the world.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting held at the convention center, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said governments must work together to face the tough challenges facing their people.

"From the pandemic, to climate change, to fair and equitable taxation, doing it yourself is not an option," said PM Draghi.

The corporate tax deal has been hailed as evidence of renewed multilateral coordination, with large corporations facing a 15 percent minimum tax wherever they operate from 2023, to prevent them from protecting their profits in offshore entities.

"This is more than a tax deal, it's diplomacy that is reshaping our global economy and giving to our people," US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter.

With the world reeling from rising energy prices and supply chains stretched, President Biden is expected to press G20 energy producers with spare capacity to increase production, particularly Russia and Saudi Arabia, to ensure a stronger global economic recovery, a senior U.S. government official said. Union.