The president of the United States, Joe Biden, opens this Friday at a meeting of the G-7 that is being held in the British coastal town of St. Ives, in Cornwall, loaded with good will and a list of tasks that threaten to cost more money to the Europeans. Its abundant work agenda includes the interference of Russia, the aggressive rise of China and the consolidation of a common front in the fight against tax evasion, the pandemic and climate change. Furthermore, like his predecessor Donald Trump, he will highlight the need to increase the defense contributions of European allies to the Atlantic Alliance.
But his main mission will be to reestablish American leadership and ties with European partners disenchanted with the policy of trade tariffs and the withdrawal of international treaties from the tense era of the Republican millionaire. A reconstruction of credibility that is the cornerstone to strengthen NATO and “make it clear to Putin and China that Europe and the United States are together,” as he stressed to the press before leaving.
This eight-day trip will test the Democratic president’s ability to convince European partners that Washington is back and ready to once again lead the West in what he calls an existential collision between democracies and autocracies. «Will the democratic alliances and institutions that shaped much of the last century have the capacity to confront the threats and adversaries of today? I think the answer is yes. And this week, in Europe, we have the opportunity to demonstrate it, “said the president in an opinion article published in the ‘Washington Post’.
However, it will also face pressure from Europeans to increase vaccine supplies to other countries after its initial promise of 20 million doses announced last week. He is also obliged to resolve doubts about trade disagreements, new restrictions on investing and buying in China, and his constantly evolving position on the gas pipeline from Russia to Europe bypassing Ukraine.
Revocations
Before boarding Air Force One to cross the Atlantic, and as a sign of goodwill, the president revoked Trump’s executive orders against the Chinese-owned applications TikTok and WeChat, and signed a new one that requires security reviews to these platforms. of foreign adversaries.
Biden arrives with a victory in hand, advanced by the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, who obtained the support of the G-7 on a global minimum rate of 15% for the large multinationals. The agreement will allow European market countries to tax up to 20% of surplus profits, above a 10% margin, which includes more than one hundred large corporations that will have to pay taxes in the geographic markets where they receive income and not only where they are based.
THE KEY
- 8
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days Joe Biden will remain in European lands with the aim of erasing the Trump inheritance.
- Ambitious goals.
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Washington seeks allies to fight tax evasion, pandemic and climate change
- New taxes.
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The tax to large multinationals is put as an example of collaboration between allies
This commitment comes at a time when the Biden Administration is trying to increase corporate taxes on American companies from 21% to 28%. Increasing global levies would be key to ensuring that North American firms do not choose to relocate their operations abroad when their tax rates are raised.
In return, the G-7 countries have agreed to end taxes on digital services by US tech companies, an issue that has curbed threats by Washington to impose retaliatory tariffs on a variety of products from other countries such as United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Turkey and India. Either way, international negotiations are long and complex. Britain seeks to exclude City of London financial services companies from global tax reform. London is concerned that Biden’s proposal could be a significant deterrent to banks that run many of their operations from the city. This could exacerbate the impact of Brexit, which has already diverted much of financial trade to Amsterdam.
In North American lands, the pre-agreement has already caused a Republican mutiny that tries to sink the ship before it begins to sail with arguments that mark the commitment as anticompetitive, and, if it is, in the words of Senator John Barrasso, “crazy.”
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source https://pledgetimes.com/2021/06/biden-travels-to-europe-to-form-a-common-front-to-stop-russia-and-china/
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