new delhi the world took a big step toward sweeping changes to global taxation as 130 countries and jurisdictions endorsed setting a minimum rate for corporations along with rules to share the spoils from multinational firms like facebook inc and alphabet incs googleafter years of missteps and setbacks the deal brokered in negotiations at the organization for economic cooperation and development sets the stage for group of 20 finance ministers to sign off on an agreement in principle at a meeting in venice next weekthat could mean implementation as soon as 2023 of rules that would curtail tax avoidance by making multinational companies pay an effective rate of at least 15 and give smaller countries more tax revenue from foreign firmsa small group of nations have not yet joined the plan the parisbased oecd said in a statement thursday that includes hungary and ireland which has attracted some of the worlds big businesses with low taxesseveral key countries that had been question marks agreed to the terms including india china and turkey according to the oecd the technical details may leave room for further concessions to developing economiesthe broad agreement thursday averts another stumble that could have proved fatal for efforts to rework tax rules given only a short window of opportunity to get a global deal approved by the us congress and other national parliamentsfair shareus treasury secretary janet yellen lauded the news saying it was an historic day for economic diplomacyyellen in a statement thursday declared that an international race to the bottom on corporate tax rates that robbed countries of revenue needed for infrastructure education and other needs had moved a step closer to endingin the united states this agreement will ensure that corporations shoulder a fair share of that burden she said we have a chance now to build a global and domestic tax system that lets american workers and businesses compete and win in the world economythe absence of ireland and hungary from the deal could yet create problems for the european union to implement the plans irelands finance minister paschal donohoe said last month that any deal on a minimum rate must meet the needs of small and large countries developed and developingfrench finance minister bruno le maire said he would spend the coming week before the g20 meeting redoubling his efforts to convince reluctant european countries to make the necessary efforts to join an historic agreement that very broadly brings together the states of the planetresolving the issue has become increasingly urgent for the world economy after disagreements over taxing tech firms and setting a minimum rate spiraled into trade tensions last year the promise of nearly 150 billion in extra revenue for governments also helped get a deal over the line as most countries face massive budget shortfalls in the wake of the covid19 pandemicthe difficulty the deals advocates have faced is getting developing nations to sign up wholesale to something initially brokered by the group of seven the small club of