G20 Finance Ministers And Central Bank Governors Meet
The two-day meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held in Fukuoka, Japan.It came in the backdrop of the present global economic crisis. The meeting not only contemplated and pinpointed the various trade and tariff concerns of the G20 member-countries; it also laid the preparatory ground work for the upcoming G20 Summit to be held in Osaka later this month. This meeting paves the way to relook and reconsider the policy of ‘protectionism’ being adopted by two big economic powers, the US and China. Apart from this, the meeting necessitated creating a new regime of taxation for the multinational technology and digital companies like Facebook and Google.It also deliberated on the need to check the growing menace of money-laundering, bank frauds, financial crimes, and economic offenses occurring all over the world.
The Fukuoka meeting of Finance Ministers from the G20 nation assumes significance due to the ongoing US-China trade war, which is not only jeopardizing their own bilateral trade, but it is also affecting world trade at large. It should be noted, in order to tackle the trade deficit of $379 billion with China, the US imposed an additional 25 percent tax over Chinese import worth of $250 billion; China also reciprocated by imposing tax over the $110 billion worth of US imports. The growth of world trade has been sizably reduced and hasled to reduced global growth rate by half a percent. The IMF has already cut its forecast for global growth from 3.6 percent to 3.3 percent for the year 2019. Fact is, this ongoing trade war has no end unless both US and China discuss the issues bilaterally during the upcoming Osaka G20 Summit.
However, US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, who participated in the Fukuoka Conference, was not perturbed with the US-China trade row.He rather opined that if the US and China are not able to solve their trade concerns, then US would further impose taxes over the other Chinese import items worth $300 billion. The US feels that restrictions being imposed over China will enable the flight of several Chinese investments and manufacturing conglomeratesto the other countries including the US, thus enabling growth of the world economy. The statement of US Treasury Secretary can be also seen in the context of existing depressive economic scenario of many European countries, who are badly searching for fresh investments. However, Japan, the third largest economy of the world after the US and China, which is organizing the G20 summit forthe first time since the inception of thegrouping in 1999, is actually more perturbed over the China-US trade war. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso feels that the policy of ‘protectionism’ adopted by China and US has lowered the growth potential of the Japanese economy too.
India’s perspective of the G20 Finance Ministers’ meet was more focused over creating a new world order for tax avoidance under the bilateral economic cooperation, as well as establishing a new regime for international taxation. Newly appointed Indian Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had already expressed her agenda before participating in the Fukuoka meet.
India feels that without these measures, the revenue potential of the member-countries would get hampered. Technology multinationals are avoiding tax in a big way, which has been difficult to calculate on the basis of their user and base country.It is to be noted, the US- China trade war has affected India’s trade prospects with the US also.
The G20 countries represents around two thirds of the world’s total population and they incur more than 85 percent of the total global trade. The Fukuoka Meet was also being accompanied by another conference of Trade and Commerce ministers hailing from more than 50 countries of the world. The G20Finance leaders at Fukuoka tried to lay a new platform for consensual solution for the upcoming Osaka Summit of G20 leaders.
Script: Manohar Manoj, Journalist
The Fukuoka meeting of Finance Ministers from the G20 nation assumes significance due to the ongoing US-China trade war, which is not only jeopardizing their own bilateral trade, but it is also affecting world trade at large. It should be noted, in order to tackle the trade deficit of $379 billion with China, the US imposed an additional 25 percent tax over Chinese import worth of $250 billion; China also reciprocated by imposing tax over the $110 billion worth of US imports. The growth of world trade has been sizably reduced and hasled to reduced global growth rate by half a percent. The IMF has already cut its forecast for global growth from 3.6 percent to 3.3 percent for the year 2019. Fact is, this ongoing trade war has no end unless both US and China discuss the issues bilaterally during the upcoming Osaka G20 Summit.
However, US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, who participated in the Fukuoka Conference, was not perturbed with the US-China trade row.He rather opined that if the US and China are not able to solve their trade concerns, then US would further impose taxes over the other Chinese import items worth $300 billion. The US feels that restrictions being imposed over China will enable the flight of several Chinese investments and manufacturing conglomeratesto the other countries including the US, thus enabling growth of the world economy. The statement of US Treasury Secretary can be also seen in the context of existing depressive economic scenario of many European countries, who are badly searching for fresh investments. However, Japan, the third largest economy of the world after the US and China, which is organizing the G20 summit forthe first time since the inception of thegrouping in 1999, is actually more perturbed over the China-US trade war. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso feels that the policy of ‘protectionism’ adopted by China and US has lowered the growth potential of the Japanese economy too.
India’s perspective of the G20 Finance Ministers’ meet was more focused over creating a new world order for tax avoidance under the bilateral economic cooperation, as well as establishing a new regime for international taxation. Newly appointed Indian Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had already expressed her agenda before participating in the Fukuoka meet.
India feels that without these measures, the revenue potential of the member-countries would get hampered. Technology multinationals are avoiding tax in a big way, which has been difficult to calculate on the basis of their user and base country.It is to be noted, the US- China trade war has affected India’s trade prospects with the US also.
The G20 countries represents around two thirds of the world’s total population and they incur more than 85 percent of the total global trade. The Fukuoka Meet was also being accompanied by another conference of Trade and Commerce ministers hailing from more than 50 countries of the world. The G20Finance leaders at Fukuoka tried to lay a new platform for consensual solution for the upcoming Osaka Summit of G20 leaders.
Script: Manohar Manoj, Journalist
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