G-20 finance chiefs mull 'fair tax' reforms to boost growth

Finance chiefs of the Group of 20 major economies meeting in the Japanese city of Fukuoka debated Saturday over how to revise tax systems to ensure big companies pay their fair share and support economies as global growth slows.

One aim is to prevent a "race to the bottom" by countries trying to lure companies by offering unsustainably and unfairly low tax rates as an incentive.

Ensuring governments capture a fair share of profits from the massive growth of businesses like Facebook and Amazon has grown in importance over the many years the G-20 finance chiefs have been debating reforms aimed at preventing tax evasion and modernizing policies, as financial markets and businesses have been transformed by technology.

"Everyone, we are now facing a turning point. This could be the biggest reform of the long established international framework in over 100 years," Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told the group.

While the officials from both wealthy and developing nations differed over some details, they agreed on the need to get the job done.

"It sounds like we have a strong consensus, and now we deal with the technicalities of how we turn this into reality," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday.

The talks in this bustling port city come just weeks ahead of the June 28-29 summit of G-20 leaders in Osaka, Japan, where President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are due to meet and possibly work on resolving their bruising standoff over trade and technology.

Mnuchin has been heading trade talks with Beijing along with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. He was due to meet with Yi Gang, governor of China's central bank, in Fukuoka. It was unclear if their meeting might lead to a restart of those talks after weeks of stalemate.

Concern over the potential blow to the world economy from the battle of wills between the two biggest economies has deepened as the Trump administration prepares to expand retaliatory tariff hikes of up to 25% to another $300 billion of Chinese products.

Meanwhile, after a flurry of negotiations, Trump said in a tweet that he would refrain from imposing 5% tariffs on products from Mexico after it "agreed to take strong measures" to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.

"I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico," Trump tweeted Friday night, saying the "tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended."