Yellen to travel to Italy next month to further efforts on global minimum tax

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to travel next month to the meeting of the Group of 20 (G-20) finance ministers in Venice, Italy, where she is hoping to get an agreement on a global minimum tax.

The Treasury Department announced Thursday that Yellen will attend the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting from July 9 to 10.

“While in Venice, Secretary Yellen will continue to reinforce the U.S. commitment to multilateralism and advance U.S. policy priorities on global tax policy, climate change, an inclusive economic recovery, and global health,” the department said in a statement.

A top priority for Yellen is an agreement with other countries on a global minimum tax of at least 15 percent. Yellen has said that such an agreement would end a “race to the bottom” on corporate taxation and would help to address concerns that American businesses would become less competitive if the U.S. raises its corporate tax rate, as President Biden has proposed.

Separately, the Group of Seven leading industrial nations announced support for a global minimum tax of at least 15 percent earlier this month. The next step is for a political agreement to be reached at the meeting of the G-20, which includes additional countries as well as the European Union.

Negotiators are then hoping to finalize an agreement through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the fall. More than 100 countries are participating in the OECD process.

Following the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting, Yellen is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at a conference in Venice on climate change. After that, Yellen is set to travel to Brussels “to strengthen the transatlantic economic relationship with EU counterparts and meet with the Eurogroup to discuss U.S. policy priorities and respective efforts to support the economic recovery,” the Treasury Department said.