Signing an executive order this week, the US president withdrew the country’s support for the global tax pact agreed at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last year which allows other countries to levy top-up taxes on US multinationals.
Trump said he would withdraw from the agreement which also aims to implement a minimum corporate tax of 15% across member countries.
Ireland is one of the several countries that have agreed to the OECD tax deal and has pledged to raise its long-standing 12.5% rate for corporation tax to align with the new global minimum rate.
The US president, who was inaugurated on Monday, also announced intentions to retaliate against countries applying “extraterritorial” levies on US multinationals, further demonstrating his intentions to change global tax agreements in favour of US firms.
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, the president’s latest comments underscored his longstanding desire for broader duties and a new February deadline for 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico, as well as duties on China and the EU.
Trump said the EU and other countries also had troubling trade surpluses with the United States.
“The European Union is very, very bad to us,” he said, repeating comments made Monday. “So they’re going to be in for tariffs. It’s the only way… you’re going to get fairness.”
In an “America First Trade Policy” memo issued on his first day back in the White House, Trump directed the Commerce and Treasury departments and the US Trade Representative to investigate the trade deficit in goods and recommend appropriate measures by April.
The EU has consistently exported more goods to the United States than it has imported and the US goods trade deficit stood at €155.8bn in 2023, according to Eurostat data.
In the first 11 months of 2024, Ireland exported more than €67.4bn worth of goods to the US, with US imports into Ireland totalling just €20.7bn in the same period, figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week that the EU wants to engage and negotiate with the US and warned of the risk of a “global race to the bottom” using tools such as trade tariffs.
The US president has also threatened 10% punitive duty on Chinese imports as a response to fentanyl which Trump said is being sent from China to the US via Mexico and Canada.
Trump said on Monday that he was considering imposing the duties on Canada and Mexico unless they clamped down on the trafficking of illegal migrants and fentanyl, including precursor chemicals from China, across their US borders.
Additional reporting from Reuters.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67911169b9104985b1f945837d59c600&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishexaminer.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Farid-41559175.html&c=16448837810229576304&mkt=de-de
Author :
Publish date : 2025-01-22 02:53:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
