The G20 leaders released this Monday, on the first day of the Rio de Janeiro summit, a declaration with mild mentions of the wars in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Ukraine.
Brazil, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20, managed to unblock the forum by bringing the most powerful economies on the planet to an agreement on issues such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the fight against the climate crisis and the tax on the super-rich.
The event held at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio materialized these efforts, although with a very vague language and without specific objectives to solve those problems that have strained international relations like never before since the Cold War.
The G20 thus expressed its “deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the escalation in Lebanon”, the object of bombings and invasions by the Israeli Army for a year.
About Ukraineheading into three years under the Russian invasion, the leaders “highlighted the human suffering and negative impacts” related to the war “on global food and energy security, supply chains, and macro-financial stability.” Although, at no time did they explicitly mention Russia, a member country of the G20.
Commitment to the SDGs
The declaration, which consists of 85 points, also included the commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and accelerate actions to fulfill them on time.
To this end, the G20 launched the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, an initiative of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which was born with the support of 82 countries and the mandate to eradicate this scourge, which today affects 733 million of people.
In the document, the forum leaders also said they were “determined” to undertake “structural” actions in their economies to expand climate actionbut they insisted on the need to increase international financing for the poorest countries. Likewise, they spoke of promoting an open international economic system to achieve “sustainable economic growth” with warnings about the use of climate measures such as unjustifiable restrictions on international trade.
However, Javier Mileia declared enemy of the SDGs, announced in a separate statement that, for the first time since Argentina is in the G20, its Government “signed the declaration of presidents disassociating itself from all content linked to the 2030 Agenda.” However, their objections did not block the release of the document.
In line with Republican magnate Donald Trump, who will assume the US Presidency in January, Milei declared the G20 “in crisis” and stated that he does not sympathize with what, in his opinion, limits freedom of expression on social networks and sponsors ” “imposition scheme” of global governance institutions.
“Whether out of malice or ignorance, most modern governments have insisted on the error that to combat hunger and poverty, greater state intervention is needed,” he said during his speech at the first plenary session, which was attended by Joe Biden (USA), Xi Jinping (China), Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico), Emmanuel Macron (France), Gabriel Boric (Chile), Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Pedro Sánchez (Spain), among other leaders.
Creation of a tax on the super-rich
The countries also expressed this Monday their support for the “progressive taxation” so that the rich pay taxes more effectively and committed to continuing their discussions around the Brazilian proposal for the possible creation of a global tax on the super-rich.
“With full respect for fiscal sovereignty, we will seek to cooperate to ensure that high net worth individuals pay taxes effectively,” stated the forum of the largest economies in its final declaration, released this Monday, after the first of the two days of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The generic mention included in the document refers to the proposal of the Brazilian presidency of the G20 for the negotiation of a convention or a treaty that stop the super rich from evading taxes moving their fortunes to countries with less rigorous tax legislation.
According to the Brazilian initiative, if the nearly 3,300 billionaires in the world pay a global tax equivalent to 2% of their wealth in any country they are in, it is possible to raise between 200,000 and 250,000 million dollars annually to finance projects to combat poverty. , hunger and climate change.
“We look forward to continuing to discuss these issues at the G20 and other relevant forums, with technical input from relevant international organizations, academia and experts,” the G20 leaders said in their statement.
Brazil has already started talks with a UN working group on fair taxation and with OECD members on possible ways to implement the tax, as well as with South Africa, to continue the debate in the G20 during his presidency of the group, which he assumes in December.
The G20 heads of state said that cooperation in this area can “involve the exchange of best practices, fostering debates around tax principles and the design of mechanisms against tax evasion, including addressing potentially harmful tax practices.”
The leaders agreed that progressive taxation is one of the key tools to reduce inequalities, strengthen fiscal sustainability, encourage budget consolidation, promote solid, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, and facilitate the achievement of sustainable development goals.
In this sense, they congratulated some countries, such as Spainwhich have implemented tax reforms aimed at reducing inequalities and promoting fairer and more progressive tax systems.
On the other hand, Milei has spoken out against the tax and against any type of State intervention in the economy, clarifying in a statement that he approved the declaration so as not to “hinder” the consensus of the other leaders, but that it does not “accompany several points ” of the document.
In addition, the leaders expressed concern about projections that indicate that the world economy will grow in the coming years below historical averages.
According to the latest report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on World Economic Outlookglobal growth will go from 3.3% in 2023 to 3.2% in 2024 and 2025, with a slight slowdown in the US and China.
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