US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to urge EU officials to drop plans for a digital tax on large technology companies after G20 countries agreed on global tax reforms.
Ms Yellen is in Brussels early this week after the G20 gathering of finance ministers in Venice at the weekend that resulted in them backing a historic tax deal reached by the G7 last month for multinationals to pay their “fair share” of tax around the world.
She will raise her concerns at a meeting with eurozone finance ministers on Monday, in an indication that the US is ramping up efforts to stop the economic bloc from proceeding with plans for a digital service tax.
“The agreement that we have reached in the OECD framework discussion calls on countries to agree to dismantle existing digital taxes that the US has regarded as discriminatory and to refrain from erecting similar measures in the future,” said Ms Yellen.
“It is really up to the European Commission and the members of the EU to decide how to proceed,” she said. “But those countries have agreed to avoid putting in place in the future and to dismantle taxes that are discriminatory against US firms."
More than 130 countries have joined a two-pillar OECD plan backing a global minimum tax regime to reform international tax rules.
The deal is designed to stop major corporations from moving to low-tax jurisdictions and to establish a fairer system for distributing the tax rights on multinationals, based on where they operate instead of where they are headquartered.
The latter component also includes an agreement to end so-called digital services taxes that several European countries have introduced to take aim at the revenue of large technology companies such as Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Facebook.
While EU officials have yet to finalise their plan for the bloc-wide levy, they said its name is misleading and that it would not qualify as a digital services tax.
“I really think we can fix the issue; we can alleviate the difficulties,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said at the weekend. “There are solutions and I am sure that the European Commission will do its best efforts to find solutions with the American administration.”
However, media reports on Monday indicated that Brussels will delay its plans for its digital service tax until autumn.
Ms Yellen, along with her counterparts from Germany and France expressed confidence at the weekend that the proposed global tax pact can overcome political obstacles and be finalised in October.
She said she was “very optimistic” that the US Congress would pass legislation this autumn needed to enforce the part of the deal that calls for a global minimum rate that ensures multinationals pay tax of at least 15 per cent on profit in each country in which they operate.
Ms Yellen said she hoped that Congress would address the portion of the pact dealing with the redistribution of tax rights as soon as spring of 2022.
European leaders face their own challenges in convincing the bloc to adopt the agreement, with Ireland, Hungary and Estonia refusing to sign up as they are opposed to the effective minimum tax of 15 per cent.
Ms Yellen will meet Paschal Donohoe, finance minister of Ireland, while in Brussels. Earlier this month Mr Donohoe said his country is not yet ready to agree to a global minimum tax rate, although he intends to hold a public consultation on the draft agreement.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Volvo ES90 Specs
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
