Europe’s five biggest economies warn Trump

(Daily Mail), 12 December 2017 -  Europe’s five biggest economies have warned Donald Trump that plans for massive US tax reforms may end up violating international trade rules.   

Finance ministers from Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain say they have ‘significant concerns’ about some of the US President’s tax initiatives and fear they could harm the global economy.  

In a letter to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the ministers said the tax overhaul could risk ‘seriously hampering genuine trade and investment flows’ between Europe and America.Their warning mirrors fears among some European businesses that aspects of Mr Trump’s tax-reform bills may have been designed to give American companies an advantage over foreign rivals.  

The ministers, including Britain’s chancellor Philip Hammond, warned the measures could ‘discriminate’ in a manner which would contravene World Trade Organisation (WTO) provisions, would be inconsistent with double taxation rules, and would be ‘poorly targeted’ at helping to combat tax avoidance.