G-7 leaders agree on Sexes, China and taxing corporations

Critics of the Group of Seven wealthy countries staked their claim Sunday to leading the world from their coronavirus pandemic and crisis, pledging more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations, vowing to assist developing nations grow while combating climate change and funding a minimal tax on multinational firms.

G-7 leaders agree on Sexes, China and taxing corporations

In the group's first face-to-face assembly in two years, the leaders resisted promises of support for international health, green energy, infrastructure and education.

The leaders needed to demonstrate that global collaboration is back following the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they wanted to state the team of wealthy democracies -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the uk and the United States -- is a much better friend to poorer countries than authoritarian rivals like China.

Speaking at the conclusion of this summit in southwest England, U.S. President Joe Biden, who was making his first foreign trip as leader, said it had been an"outstanding, collaborative and productive meeting."

Johnson reported that the G-7 would demonstrate that the value of democracy and human rights to the rest of the world and help"the world's poorest countries to develop themselves in a way that's clean and green and sustainable."

"It is not great enough for us to just rest on our laurels and talk about how significant those values are," he told reporters after the 3-day assembly on the Cornwall coast. "And this isn't about imposing our values on the rest of the world. What we as the G-7 have to do will be to demonstrate the benefits of liberty and democracy and human rights to the rest of the world."

But environmental and health campaigners were clearly unimpressed from the details from the leaders' final communique.

"This G-7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at the international aid group Oxfam. "as well as the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they've failed to meet the challenges of the times."

Even with Johnson's call to"vaccinate the planet" by the end of 2022 the guarantee of 1 billion doses to get vaccine-hungry nations -- coming both directly and through the global COVAX plan -- falls far short of their 11 billion doses that the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the planet's inhabitants and truly end the pandemic.

Half of this billion-dose pledge is coming from the United States and 100 million in Britain. Canada said it would give 100 million doses, and France pledged 60 million.

The vaccines are due to be sent by the end of 2022, however, Biden said the leaders were so apparent that the commitments they made to donate doses would not be the ending.

The U.S. president said getting shots into arms round the world was a"gigantic, logistical effort" and the target might not be achieved until 2023.

The G-7 also endorsed a minimal tax of 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes.

The minimum speed was championed by the USA and dovetails with the goal of President Joe Biden to concentrate the summit ways the democracies can support a fairer global economy by working together.

Biden also wanted to convince fellow civic leaders to provide a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing and strongly call out China's"nonmarket policies and human rights abuses."

The speech on China in the G-7 leaders' communique from the meeting has been more muted than the United States has employed, however, Biden said he was satisfied. In the communique published Sunday, the group said:"With respect to China, and competition in the international market, we will continue to consult on collective strategies to challenging non-market policies and practices that undermine the reasonable and transparent operation of the global economy."

The leaders also said they would market their values by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang, in which Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses from the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous town of Hong Kong.

Yet Brexit cast a shadow on that aim during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concerns concerning problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have increased tensions in Northern Ireland.

But overall, the mood has been favorable: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the shore at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that turned into a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The last G-7 summit was in France at 2019, with last year's event in the USA scuttled by the pandemic.

The leaders mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception in their very first evening and were served steak and lobster at a beach barbecue after watching an aeronautic screen by the Royal Air Force Red Arrows in their moment.

America's allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player following the"America First" policy of this Trump administration.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi stated the president"wished to rebuild what would be the traditional alliances of the United States following the span of Trump, during these alliances were severely cracked."

Chancellor Angela Merkel, attending her past G-7 summit as Germany's leader -- she's set to leave office following an election later this year -- said the meeting's message was"we would like to act, we would like to act for a better world."

"We know after the pandemic that this is more necessary than ever," Merkel said.

Biden flew out of the summit in Carbis Bay to have tea with the queen at Windsor Castle.

The G-7 additionally made rough declarations during their meetings about girls' schooling, preventing future pandemics and funding greener infrastructure globally

On climate change, the"Build Back Better for the World" plan promises to offer financing for infrastructure --"from railways from Africa to wind farms in Asia" -- to help accelerate the global shift to renewable energy. The plan is a response to China's"belt along with street" initiative, which has increased Beijing's worldwide influence.

All G-7 nations have pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but a lot of environmentalists say that will be too little, too late.

Naturalist David Attenborough addressed the leaders video Sunday, warning that humanity is"on the point of the entire planet."

"If that's so, then the conclusions we create this decade -- specifically the decisions produced by the economically advanced countries -- would be the most important in human history," the veteran documentary filmmaker said.

Massive crowds of surfers and kayakers took to the sea at a mass protest to advocate better protections for the world's oceans, while thousands beat drums as they marched beyond the summit's media centre in Falmouth.

"G-7 is greenwashing," the protesters sang. "We're drowning in guarantees, now's the time to act."