The US, Britain, and other leading countries reached a landmark deal on Saturday to raise global taxation for multinational companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, Reuters reported.

As part of a solution that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to help governments cope with the impact of COVID-19, the G7 of major developed economies agreed to support a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%. The initiator of this decision was US President Joe Biden.

German Finance Minister said the deal was bad news for tax havens around the world.

Rich countries have struggled for years to agree on a way to generate more revenue from large multinationals that can pay a small tax on the billions of dollars in sales they make to countries around the world, draining public finances.

Ministers also agreed to move towards getting companies to declare their environmental impact so that investors can more easily decide whether to finance them. This is a key UK goal.

The G7 includes the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, and Canada.