No one buries even the hatchet, but the idea is not to stir it too much and leave space to find a solution in the long battle for the rate that Google has nails to Paris and Washington. In a conciliatory gesture, France has offered to defer the payment in 2020 of the tax that was approved last year for the big digital companies foreign operating in its territory. In exchange, the united States would be willing to not impose new tariffs on French products. The idea, which if approved will be announced Wednesday at the economic forum of Davos, is to give it time to be achieved, to agree on an international tax that should propose the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) this year.
“it Is a possibility on the table of negotiations”, confirmed to THE COUNTRY a source of French close to the negotiations. The idea, he explained, is to “postpone” the payment of the fee —fees are made in April and November— until December, “to allow the finding of an agreement in the framework of the OECD”, which has always been the declared goal of Paris. The contacts in the last few days have been “very regular” between the negotiating teams from Washington and Paris, but the talks are “complex”, he admitted.
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Trump vs. ‘rate Google’ France agrees with the U.S., a truce of 15 days, the ‘rate Google’
France agreed in 2019, a lien of close to 3% of the volume of business of technology companies in the country who obtain an annual income of at least 750 million euros (about 830 million dollars) in its activities to digital world. The first collection was made in November, but if we accept the proposal of Paris, might also be the last. France, who denies categorically the accusation from Washington that it is a tax to punish american companies, has been manifested from the beginning ready to end its rate Google if you agree to a payment type of way international, a task that has been entrusted to the OECD. France is willing, even, to reimburse the affected platforms the difference between the rate charged and the reach set.
in exchange for the freezing of the charges, the united States will not make true his threat of imposing a tariff of up to 100% on French products imported, such as wine, to the value of 2,400 million dollars (about 2,200 million euros).
he had the air of agreement dropped as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on the night of Monday, when he announced on Twitter that he had kept the Sunday an “excellent” conversation with the american, Donald Trump on the rate Google (in France, called GLASS, by acronyms of the major digital platforms: Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple). “Great conversation with Donald Trump about the rate digital. We’ll work together on a good agreement to avoid the escalation of the tariff,” wrote Macron. “Excellent!”, responded the american president.
The main negotiators of the agreement, the French minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, secretary u.s. Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, and the secretary-general of the OECD, Angel Gurria, will meet this Wednesday in Davos.
In an event like the Davos Forum, dominated by us firms and the technology sector, the rate Google occupies the top of the agenda. France’s decision to postpone until December, your application was received with relief, not only for the companies concerned but because the decision avoids a new climbing business, and a worsening of tensions between the US and the European Union.
Relief in Davos
“If it is true that occurs, it is a good news. The OECD needs more time to articulate a proposal regarding a fee digital that is acceptable to all. That will prevent the US from imposing sanctions for 2,400 million dollars to France, and that this unleashed a new climbing business,” says Chad Brown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute in Washington. To his side, the secretary-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevedo, warned: “This is not going to be here, this question is a long journey.”
Trump held yesterday a meeting with the president of the European Commission, and Ursula von der Leyen, who expressed his desire to work with the president of the united STATES. “I am convinced that we can commit to a positive agenda in the commercial arena, but also in technology, energy and many other areas”, said in a press release after the meeting. “We’ve been working a while on it and hopefully we can achieve something important. An agreement with Europe is something that we all want to achieve,” pointed out the president. Shortly after, Trump was grateful for the decision to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron: “the united States is very pleased with the result and we very much appreciate what he has done, the president Macron”.
The survey by PwC of directors published Monday reveals high concern among the executives before the seemingly inevitable end of the current model of technological development. The majority of executives surveyed predict that they will begin to regulate both the content and the structure of the Network, the rupture of the large companies to reduce their power, and the establishment of some kind of compensation for the use of personal data. “If the global economy wants to put in place the expectations generated by the fourth industrial revolution, will require greater coordination on all these issues,” concludes the report of the consultant.
Spain will go ahead with the tax if there is global compact
Spain is keen to move forward with the implementation of the rate Google if there is a global agreement in the framework of the OECD. The vice-president of economic, Nadia Calviño, called Tuesday for “a global solution in the framework of the OECD as soon as possible”. If this does not arrive, decided to resume the debate in the European Commission. And he warned: “The Spanish Government does not exclude that propose the creation of that tax digital at the national level”. “In fact, it is within our plans and the budget plan that we had submitted to the Commission”, he added.
The finance ministers of the EU kicked off the year with an old folder: the rate digital. Despite the tensions between the US and France, in Brussels has installed a certain optimism about the jobs that are being developed within the OECD. These are divided into two blocks: a commission will study how to allocate the benefits of these tech giants to a jurisdiction to pay taxes on it, while the other is agree on a type impositivo minimum.
After the meeting with their counterparts at the community, Calviño believed that there is a proposal at the end of the month in the two areas in order to achieve a global deal. “It is not possible this agreement in the short term, the EU should assume that this is a key issue and that requires a joint action of all member States”, said the vice president.
however, the position in the EU is not homogeneous. The tax already was wrecked last year by the opposition of four countries —Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland—. These Governments argued that first they had to find an agreement at the global level, for that you could not claim that he had not first tried an international consensus. In addition, Sweden believed that the formula proposed by Brussels could be a brake on innovation, because if they imposed a tax on the billing could punish companies in losses.
Calviño defended that the majority of EU countries want to see progress in the two pillars that are being addressed, although he admitted that some Governments have doubts on how to set jurisdictions and others on how to establish a minimum rate. “This is a very sensitive matter and a priority from the point of view of economic, fiscal and political,” added the vice president.
More clear what he saw Spain, who presented a project to fix a rate of 3% to companies with a global turnover higher than 750 million euros and more than three million in the country. With it, the Government intended to raise 1,200 million euros. “In any case, the Spanish Government does not exclude that propose the creation of such a tax,” concluded yesterday Calviño. Its processing would be parallel to the General Budgets of the State by the year 2020.
