ANKARA

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged countries late on Tuesday to agree on an "urgently needed" global corporate income taxation, warning that its absence could lead to a chaotic tax or trade war without global rules.

"We are particularly optimistic for a global agreement on corporate income taxation in 2021," said Kristalina Georgieva, the fund's chief, during a virtual book launch.

She said the entire world was facing two devastating and very costly crises caused by the novel coronavirus and climate change.

These urgent needs joined with a reawakened spirit of multilateralism, Georgieva added, "give us a unique opportunity to rethink and fix the international tax system -- to create a system that is truly fit for the 21st-century."

She stressed that a multilateral approach would be the only way to ensure that highly profitable multinational firms pay sufficient tax and that they pay it to nations where they have significant engagements, including low-income developing countries.

"The international corporate tax system has become similarly dark and distorted. But we have a special opportunity this year to bring the light of simplicity and fairness to it," she underlined.