US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday spoke with French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire about the importance of working together toward a solution in the ongoing Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) discussions on international taxation, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement.
During their conversation, Yellen emphasized US support for a strong economic recovery and explained US President Joe Biden’s administration’s broader plans to support jobs and investment in the US, the department said.
“The secretary also expressed support for measures to promote the global recovery through multilateral mechanisms and support for low-income countries,” it said.
Nearly 140 countries are racing to wrap up talks by the middle of this year to modernize outdated rules on how much governments can tax cross-border commerce and set a global minimum corporate tax rate.
The talks stalled last year following a proposal by the administration of then-US president Donald Trump to let companies out of new global tax rules, but Yellen has since dropped that demand.
Yellen had underscored her commitment to reaching a global agreement through the OECD, and would discuss the issue with her G20 counterparts when they meet virtually next week.
The US in January had already refrained from imposing threatened tariffs on US$1.3 billion in imports of French Champagne, cosmetics, handbags and other goods in retaliation for France’s digital tax, but said it could still impose them if the OECD talks did not result in a global solution.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) last week said the same applied to US tariffs threatened against goods from Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK in retaliation for their respective digital services taxes.
The Office of the US Trade Representative investigations into the taxes adopted by the six countries found that they discriminate against US technology companies and are inconsistent with international tax norms.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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