Blocking Notice. The divisions between powers prevented any progress on subjects such as the fight against inequalities or the reform of international taxation, during the meeting of G20 finance ministers, organized in Brazil, on Wednesday February 28 and Thursday February 29. “As happens quite frequently, a press release [conjoint] not possible “ due to disagreements related to “geopolitical conflicts”explained Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad on Thursday evening, without giving further details.
The disagreements in question mainly focused on the mention of ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, and the use of terms used to designate countries such as Russia. “We have a war against Ukraine, we have the terror of Hamas and we have the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and all of this cannot leave us indifferent. All this also needs to be discussed here”, had warned Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, at the start of the meeting. In the entourage of the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, it is explained that France wanted “citing Russia as aggressor [et] Ukraine as the victim of Russian aggression ».
In the absence of a joint press release, Brazil has displayed the priorities of its presidency of the G20 in 2024, namely the reduction of inequalities, the reduction of the debt burden – which is suffocating a growing number of developing countries – and the reform of the international taxation. The country has above all pleaded in favor of a “new globalization”. “We must consider climate change and poverty as truly global challenges, which must be addressed through a new globalization”said Mr. Haddad.
“An unsustainable situation”
The former mayor of Sao Paulo, potential candidate to succeed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, insisted that “Billionaires around the world pay their fair share of taxes”, before suggesting the establishment of a minimum imposition of “ super rich » at the International scale.
“We have reached an unsustainable situation, in which the richest 1% own 43% of the world’s financial assets and emit the same amount of carbon as the poorest two thirds of humanity”, affirmed the Brazilian minister, relying on figures from the EU Tax Observatory research center, hosted by the Paris School of Economics, which estimates that the tax rate of billionaires does not exceed, on average, 0 .5% of their fortune.
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