Paris (AFP)

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday he expected a "difficult fight" within the G20 to convince "other great powers" like China to ratify the agreement on a minimum global tax on multinationals announced the day before by the G7 countries.

"The next step is the G20, which will take place in Venice, Italy at the beginning of July (the G20 finance ministers will meet there on July 9 and 10). Here we will have to convince the other great powers, in particular Asians, I am thinking in particular of China. Let's face it, it's going to be a difficult fight. I am hopeful that we will win it because the G7 is giving this extremely powerful political impetus, "Bruno Le Maire said at the meeting. 'an interview with Europe 1 / CNews / Les Echos.

G7 finance ministers (UK, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany, US) announced on Saturday an agreement on a global corporate tax of "at least 15%" and on a better distribution tax revenues from multinationals, especially digital giants, after a two-day meeting in London.

This agreement of the Group of Seven Great Powers has been encouraged by the American turnaround on the tax issue since the coming to power of Joe Biden.

It is also in line with the work undertaken within the OECD on large technology companies, often American, which pay derisory taxes despite enormous profits, by being domiciled in countries where the tax rate is low. on corporations is very low, if any.

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"These are tax revenues which can be considerable and fair, they will not penalize one country or another. They will be universal and that is what will make them effective," Le Maire stressed on Sunday.

He estimated that for the digital giants, this could bring France "something more important than the 400 million euros that we receive with the national tax" adopted in 2019, said Bruno Le Maire.

“It can be between 500 million euros and a billion euros” per year.

Regarding the minimum taxation of multinational companies, "the base is much broader because it affects a very large number of companies. We are on several tens of billions of euros at the European level and several billion euros at the same time. 'scale of France ", he added.

© 2021 AFP