N° 19 décembre 2021 The annual G20 summit was held last week in Rome, the previous one being via video conference due to covid 19.
This summit took place just before the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow. Needless to say that the decisions taken at the Rome summit will weigh heavily in the Glasgow debates. A 61-point declaration was drawn up and approved by the heads of state and government present, China, Russia and Japan were absent. The G20 is made up of the twenty richest capitalist countries on the planet. The newspaper El Pais recalls that these economies represent “more than 80% of world GDP, 75% of world trade, 60% of the population and 80% of greenhouse gas emissions”. This shows the importance of this group in the workings of the world.
But what are the G20s for? As this is a meeting of the highest officials of the richest capitalist countries, they obviously do not come only for hugs and handshakes! Essentially, although they are competitors brutally defending, including through trade wars or even wars, the interests of their monopolies for the conquest of markets, access to raw materials, especially energy, control of communications lines and labor power, they have in common the desire to preserve the existence and development of the capitalist system all over the world. This system is now facing a post-crisis stage due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid 19 pandemic, but also to a globalization that has internationalized the productive forces and correlatively commercial exchanges. To function, the capitalist system of fierce competition for profit and accumulation of capital, needs global regulatory systems like the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and a host of specialized agencies. Moreover, its internationalization is accompanied by the constitution on geographical and / or political bases of imperialist economic alliances, such as the European Union and / or military like NATO. This internationalization is one of the major contradictions in its development. What Minister Bruno Lemaire sums up in his own way: "There is a challenge ahead of us, considerable, which we will talk about a lot: how do we strengthen the independence of our production chains, our independence in the face of the shortage of scarce materials, of construction materials. This is one of the strong elements that the President of the Republic wanted to put at the heart of the French position and that I will defend this morning in Rome. How to make Europe more independent from China and the United States. " This is reflected in the major points of the final declaration.
To illustrate our point, we will retain three:
• A new international tax system
• Aid to low or middle income countries
• The climate issue
As for the new international taxation, as planned, the G20 endorsed the agreement reached last October under the aegis of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
A total of 136 countries representing more than 90% of global GDP have pledged to tax multinationals and introduce a global minimum tax rate of 15% from 2023. Let's not be fooled, this minimum measure does not hamper capital. In countries where the tax is lower it will take time for this measure to become law and the outcome is far from certain! On the other hand for those whose tax rate is higher this is an encouragement to lower it! Fiscal dumping still has a bright future ahead (see weekly 720 a reform of global taxation tailor-made for multinationals).
When it comes to aid to the low and middle income countries that are largely exploited by the dominant capitalist powers, under phrases tinged with humanism, the commitments are very weak.
The G20 countries pledge to return to these countries 100 billion dollars of the total amount of 650 billion dollars of special drawing rights (SDRs) issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to face the crisis caused by the pandemic. In concrete terms, pledges so far have amounted to around $ 45 billion and what was due to take effect in 2020 will at best only be in 2023. Let us note that the Taiwanese company Foxccon alone, which specializes in electronic chips, is considering an investment of 100 billion dollars to develop its productive capacity and the imperialist powers have opened the floodgates of aid for their capitalists by the hundreds, even trillions of dollars.
On the issue of climate, what caught the attention of observers is that behind the commitments already made at the Paris Cop, there is nothing much new, except the will to use the energy and ecological transition as a formidable means of imposing standards in terms of energy production and thus giving themselves a monopoly on these production tools, ensuring them a technological advance. As we can see beyond speeches what takes precedence are the capitalist interests defended by the states concerned.
There is nothing positive to expect from these international meetings which are marked, as we have just seen, by a solidarity aiming to maintain and develop the capitalist system and by the fierce competition between the monopolies and their States to dominate the peoples and exploit them.