BRASILIA, July 22 - Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 meet this week to seek consensus on economic policy ahead of the U.S. election, with plans to avoid discussion of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to prevent them from dominating the talks.
Ahead of the G20 meeting of development ministers, which runs until Tuesday in Rio, Brazil released a chair statement on Monday saying the talks will leave geopolitical issues for diplomats in future meetings. While avoiding deadlock, Brazil hopes the approach may also shift the focus this week to economic cooperation on issues such as climate change and poverty.Two Brazilian government officials said the hosts also wanted to achieve an increase in support for a proposed global tax on the super-rich that Brazil has made a priority of its G20 presidency.
Another Brazilian official who asked not to be named said tax was"a central theme in the finance track this year, regardless of the U.S. election". That marks a shift from Brazil's approach in Washington in April, when it linked the billionaire tax proposal with funding for climate policy and global poverty reduction during the IMF and World Bank spring meetings.
This would be an important step towards demonstrating the G20's initial support, although Brazil has acknowledged the effective implementation of such a global initiative would take years.