- Honda and Nissan to launch merger talks
- Police arrest suspect who set woman on fire in New York subway
- China vows 'cooperation' over ship linked to severed Baltic Sea cables
- Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
- Asian markets track Wall St rally as US inflation eases rate fears
- Luxury Western goods line Russian stores, three years into sanctions
- Wallace and Gromit return with comic warning about AI dystopia
- Philippine military says will acquire US Typhon missile system
- Afghan bread, the humble centrepiece of every meal
- Honda and Nissan expected to begin merger talks
- 'Draconian' Vietnam internet law heightens free speech fears
- Israeli women mobilise against ultra-Orthodox military exemptions
- Asian markets track Wall St rally as US inflation eases rate worries
- Tens of thousands protest in Serbian capital over fatal train station accident
- Trump vows to 'stop transgender lunacy' as a top priority
- Daniels throws five TDs as Commanders down Eagles, Lions and Vikings win
- 'Who's next?': Misinformation and online threats after US CEO slaying
- Only 12 trucks delivered food, water in North Gaza Governorate since October: Oxfam
- InterContinental Hotels Group PLC Announces Transaction in Own Shares - December 23
- Melrose Group Publicly Files Complaint to the Ontario Securities Commission
- Langers edge Tiger and son Charlie in PNC Championship playoff
- Explosive batsman Jacobs gets New Zealand call-up for Sri Lanka series
- Holders PSG edge through on penalties in French Cup
- Slovak PM Fico on surprise visit to Kremlin to talk gas deliveries
- Daniels throw five TDs as Commanders down Eagles
- Atalanta fight back to take top spot in Serie A, Roma hit five
- Mancini admits regrets over leaving Italy for Saudi Arabia
- Run machine Ayub shines as Pakistan sweep South Africa
- Slovak PM Fico on surprise visit to Kremlin
- Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 35
- 'Incredible' Liverpool must stay focused: Slot
- Maresca 'absolutely happy' as title-chasing Chelsea drop points in Everton draw
- Salah happy wherever career ends after inspiring Liverpool rout
- Three and easy as Dortmund move into Bundesliga top six
- Liverpool hit Spurs for six, Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth
- Netanyahu vows to act with 'force, determination' against Yemen's Huthis
- Mbappe back from 'bottom' as Real Madrid down Sevilla
- Ali hat-trick helps champions Ahly crush Belouizdad
- France kept on tenterhooks over new government
- Salah stars as rampant Liverpool hit Spurs for six
- Syria's new leader says all weapons to come under 'state control'
- 'Sonic 3' zips to top of N.America box office
- Rome's Trevi Fountain reopens to limited crowds
- Mbappe strikes as Real Madrid down Sevilla
- 'Nervous' Man Utd humiliated by Bournemouth
- Pope again condemns 'cruelty' of Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Lonely this Christmas: Vendee skippers in low-key celebrations on high seas
- Troubled Man Utd humiliated by Bournemouth
- 2 US pilots shot down over Red Sea in 'friendly fire' incident: military
- Man Utd embarrassed by Bournemouth, Chelsea held at Everton
Poland, Hungary resist EU's corporate minimum tax push
The EU's effort to implement an internationally agreed minimum tax on big multinationals was met with opposition by Poland and Hungary on Tuesday, endangering a major priority of France's presidency of the bloc.
The EU is trying to seal into law a landmark agreement by nearly 140 countries that forces governments to impose a 15-percent minimum tax on the world's biggest companies.
Under France's just begun six-month presidency, the 27-member EU intends to be the first jurisdiction to implement the OECD-brokered agreement in time for its application on January 1, 2023.
But this would require unanimous approval by bloc members and Poland led a small group of countries with a varied list of misgivings about moving forward.
The resistance by Poland and Hungary comes when the relationship between both countries and their EU partners are fraught, with Warsaw and Budapest seen as steering away from the bloc's democratic values.
The global minimum tax is just one part of the OECD deal, and at the heart of the criticisms by the two countries are that the other key part, or "pillar one", needs to be implemented at the same time.
That part involves a highly complex agreement which would see companies taxed where their profits are made; it targets big tech groups, but has yet to be fully finalised.
"Poland cannot support a unilateral EU introduction of a global minimum tax, reducing the competitiveness of the EU, while leaving behind pillar one," Poland's deputy ambassador to the EU, Arkadiusz Plucinski, said at a meeting of European finance and tax ministers.
"To this end, we insist on our proposal... that is linking the two pillars legally," he said.
Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said failing to tackle the other pillar "would endanger the political leverage on third countries to effectively implement" the deal.
Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister who is spearheading the proposal, defended the two-track approach.
The EU text transposes the minimum tax "in exactly the same terms" as the OECD proposal, so "there is something incomprehensible" in saying that it should not be adopted, Le Maire said.
France hopes for a final agreement on the minimum tax as early as March, just weeks ahead of presidential elections in which President Emanuel Macron is a likely candidate and would hail the deal as a major accomplishment.
P.Mathewson--AMWN