Five European Nations Issue Warning to U.S. on Tax Reform

I believe that Obama went to France to help their leaders draft this letter in response to a complete shutdown of the Democrat Party in Congress in reference to this tax code overhaul bill.  That being said, it explains why the language is so precise and appears to mimic the Democrat Party of the US.  The Shadow President’s signature, I feel, is ALL OVER THIS LETTER.

Now that we’ve established how the EU has come into this sudden field of interest in our Senate battles over tax laws in the US, I think back on the time directly after the Trump Inauguration when Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, came down to Rhode Island and met with a multitude of American governors to discuss the borders between the US and the Great White North and how these borders needed to be more open and welcoming so that business could be conducted on “a more even playing field.”  By the way, this meeting came just a month after Trudeau had an intimate bromance candlelight dinner with Barry in a famous couples hotspot in Montreal!

Do you see the pattern?  Obama meets with world leaders and, suddenly, they are KEENLY interested in American politics and want to either “warn” us or “instruct” us on how to best make money for the rest of the world.

Europe and five European finance ministers have sent a letter criticising the US for undermining the “rules of the game” and international trade. Notwithstanding Brexit, the signatories included the UK Chancellor, Philip Hammond, as well as his counterparts in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Essentially, the European nations are warning the US that it risks starting a trade dispute.

According to the Financial Times, “the finance ministers from Europe’s five largest economies have warned the Trump administration that Republican tax cut plans would flout international agreements and undermine trade, threatening to turn a Washington policy battle into a transatlantic row.”

In a letter to the White House and US Treasury department, the ministers – including Philip Hammond of the UK, Peter Altmaier of Germany and Bruno Le Maire of France – raised the possibility of retaliating if the legislation becomes law. The letter highlights concerns in Europe that the Trump administration will use tax reform as a route to promote “America first” trade discrimination, escalating tensions that have already risen in other policy areas like the environment and Middle East peace.
 
The ministers insisted they were not seeking to intervene in a domestic tax debate, which they called one of “the essential pillars of a state’s sovereignty”. Nevertheless, the letter warned Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary, that Washington should not start a trade dispute under the guise of anti-avoidance measures in taxation. “We have strong concerns if (US action to protect its tax base) is done via measures that are not targeted on abusive arrangements as this would impact on genuine business activities,” they wrote.

The letter was sent to Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, White House economic adviser, Gary Cohn and the heads of congressional committees who are currently embroiled in merging the different versions of the tax reforms passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives. From the European perspective, the sources of contention are three measures which favour domestic US businesses, as the FT explains.

All of the measures that have angered European governments would treat US operations differently than those from overseas groups, provisions that the finance ministers said violate international tax norms. For example, an “excise tax” in the House bill would impose a 20 per cent levy on US company purchases from their foreign subsidiaries which would not apply to similar domestic transactions. The letter said this “could discriminate in a manner that would be at odds with international rules embodied” in the World Trade Organization.

First of all, who cares about the “rules embodied” by the WTO?  I certainly don’t and I believe Donald Trump has a very low opinion of this world body.  Secondly, the reasons for this huge knee-jerk reaction to this tax overhaul bill is glaringly obvious.  Brussels (as well as 85% of the 28 member-states of the EU) is Leftist, meaning that they view high taxes as a privilege, number one, and number two, they see as necessary to fund all the glorious programs and pipe-dream-inspired plans for the future (like a standing army).  The Left NEVER drops a tax rate!  For the US to be surging in all of its financial quarters and threatening to bust apart the EU with overwhelming success in the trade markets, AND for them to be dropping taxes on its citizens and corporations, thereby producing a cumulative effect of an explosion of wealth the likes of which has not been seen since 1986, is the equivalent of ringing the EU bell and shouting in a British accent, “Bring out your dead!”

This is precisely why the panic and how the letter is meant to be perceived by the general public as a “serious and flagrant rule-breaking bonanza by the United States!”  They cannot afford for an American exponential surge to completely eclipse what they are doing there in the Socialist Utopia of the World at the very moment when a nationalist movement the size of Europe is disposing of their boastful influence AND a rising star in the Far East, China, is systematically picking apart their financial markets through selective gold and oil trading with Russia, Brazil, Iran, and South Africa!

The die has been cast and the EU appears to have been left out of the casting party.

Source:  ZeroHedge

Image: Peter Altmaier of Germany,  Philip Hammond of the UK, Bruno Le Maire of France