President Joe Biden had a successful Saturday at the G20 summit in Rome. This summit of world leaders is the first in-person summit in the past two years as the pandemic had made many events including global summits virtual ones. Biden had a fruitful first day and achieved some positive results.
World leaders have endorsed a global corporate minimum tax. This plan has been pushed by the President and his administration these past few months and it has finally been formally endorsed. The plan of charging a minimum of 15 percent corporate tax has been one of Biden’s core goals.
In October, 136 nations agreed to the levy of this global tax. Each individual national has to pass its own laws or modify existing ones. This might take time to implement but it will reshape global economy rules and reform international tax systems. In the past corporates, mainly multinationals would relocate to nations which offered the lowest taxes affecting the global economy. With a minimum global tax for corporations, a certain amount of equality in taxation will come back.
The United States and Europe also reached an agreement to partially remove steel tariffs. Former president Donald Trump had imposed these tariffs on the European Union. It had lead to a further deterioration of relations. The trade standoff between the U.S. and the EU was a bone of contention and might have exacerbated supply chain issues until President Biden stepped forward to mend them.
He has also made limited progress on another contentious issue. He has met with European counterparts to discuss the Iran nuclear deal where western countries will lift sanctions and Iran will restore the nuclear accord that was reached earlier but was scrapped by former president Trump.
On a personal note, President Biden who is a catholic and a regular church goer, attended Mass and received communion. He had a long meeting with the Pope, as well.
On Sunday, Biden will deal with issues related to climate change, COVID-19 and more. He is also expected to meet with world leaders in the sideline including Erdogan, the President of Turkey,
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