UK Treasury chief optimistic on tax deal targeting big tech

Britain’s Treasury chief says he’s optimistic finance ministers from the world’s richest countries will agree on plans to help low-income countries combat COVID-19, slow global warming and confront tax avoidance during two days of meetings in London

LONDON -- Britain’s Treasury chief says he’s optimistic finance ministers from the world’s richest countries will agree on plans to help low-income countries combat COVID-19, slow global warming and confront tax avoidance during two days of meetings in London. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations are meeting ahead of the annual summit of G-7 leaders scheduled for June 11-13 in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. The U.K. is hosting both sets of meetings because it hold’s the group’s rotating presidency. “I’m determined we work together and unite to tackle the world’s most pressing economic challenges, and I’m hugely optimistic that we will deliver some concrete outcomes this weekend,” Rishi Sunak, chancellor of the exchequer, said before the meetings began Friday morning. The G-7 is under pressure to provide vaccines for low-income countries facing a third wave of COVID-19, finance projects to combat climate change and agree on a global minimum tax to ensure digital companies and other multinationals pay their fair share of government revenue.