A maturing group

G20 summit discusses tax avoidance - and Syria

In at least three ways, the just-concluded summit of the Group of 20 major economies - the G20 - in St Petersburg's Constantine Palace marks a maturation of the grouping. From the first meetings in Washington and London shortly after the financial crisis of 2008 to the Pittsburgh summit of 2009, where the G20 was formally declared the main venue for the "international economic co-operation" of these countries, responsible for 80 per cent of the world's output and two-thirds of its population, the G20 kept its focus squarely on economic firefighting. However, at the St Petersburg summit, the shadow of Syria dominated the proceedings. Although the proposed strikes by the United States and France in order to enforce the international norms against chemical weapons, apparently violated by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, found no place in the final communique, there was no doubt that it was a large part of the discussion on the sidelines. After all, the summit's host, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has made no secret of his displeasure at the possibility of another Russian ally being bombed by the US. The Italian prime minister said in a tweet that "the G20 has just now finished the dinner session, at which the divisions about Syria were confirmed".

Moving beyond purely economic issues is an important step forward in the G20's evolution. However, even from the point of view of economic issues, there was considerable progress made. In particular, the consensus against the offshoring of profits by multinationals was reinforced. This first became an issue in the months after the financial crisis, when the fiscal damage caused by rampant tax avoidance cut into the war chest available to fight possible recession. Since then, worrying stories have abounded - not just in India, which fought Vodafone's tax-avoiding purchase of Hutch, but in the United Kingdom, for example, where it was discovered that the coffee shop company Starbucks paid no taxes at all in Britain despite 700 stores and sales of $640 million. Apple came under scrutiny in the US for avoiding billions of dollars in taxes by offshoring profits. These concerns are shared by all these major economies, but solving a problem like this needs careful co-ordination. The G20's effort to harmonise tax laws and tax treaties, to share information on individual taxpayers, and to ensure that multinationals' "home countries" can tax even offshore subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions is good news for public finances worldwide. For India, in particular, adopting new and stringent - but internationally approved - tax rules would help reduce concerns that its tax regime is a problematic outlier.

Finally, it is worth noting that the G20 was set up at a time when the advanced economies seemed to be in severe trouble and the emerging world would be the engine of growth. That now seems to have reversed; but the G20 is making the transition to managing the new reality seamlessly. Again, this is a sign of a much-needed maturity.