G-20 looks past Ukraine, Gaza to seek economic consensus in Rio meet

RIO DE JANEIRO: Finance and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 are on track to issue a consensus document about key economic themes at the end of their meeting in Rio de Janeiro next week, following two years of geopolitical disputes that overshadowed their work and raised questions about the very purpose of the G-20.

Geopolitical clashes, particularly the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, will be addressed in a separate chair statement published by the host nation together with the communique, according to ambassador Mauricio Carvalho Lyrio, the secretary for economic and financial affairs at Brazil's foreign ministry.

"We need to resume the production of documents by the G-20," he told reporters in Brasilia on Friday. "We will no longer demand the inclusion of language about geopolitics in ministerial documents." Deep disagreements over the wars prevented G-20 finance chiefs from issuing a communique in February, when they met in Sao Paulo under Brazil's rotating presidency of the group. The same happened in India last year and in Indonesia in 2022. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's presidency of the G-20 is facing steep challenges in a tumultuous international climate dominated by contentious elections and the wars. Still, Brazilian authorities say discussions around his main proposals are making progress. The leftist leader has been pushing for the creation of a global minimum tax on billionaires to fund actions against climate change and programmes to eliminate world hunger.


Brazil calls for a 2% minimum tax that would hit about 3,000 of the world's richest people - measured in terms of wealth, not income. It could raise as much as $250 billion per year. While US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has objected the particular formulation of the policy at G-7 meeting in May, Brazilian authorities said the discussion at that gathering was positive as it showed there's an agreement on the language to approach the matter.

They expect the idea of a minimum tax on the wealthy to be cited in the communique, with details of the proposal published on a separate note.