Europe will have a digital tax, no matter what, says Breton

Bloomberg

There will be a European tax on giant digital corporations, even if a current project harbored by the OECD fails, European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said, in an interview with France Inter radio.
“We’d rather do this within a global framework, as part of an OECD discussion, over the year 2020,” Breton said. He added that the US, which announced earlier this week that it’s pulling out of the talks, could very well come back around the negotiating table “in October, in November or even in December.”
“What is very clear is that by end December, either there is a deal within the OECD, and we will implement it, either there is none, and then Europe will present it.”
The US has said that it would withdraw from a long-running effort at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to develop a global tax, and has threatened retaliatory tariffs against any nations that impose levies on the digital revenue of American companies.
Breton also voiced optimism regarding adoption of EU stimulus plan to restart the continent’s economies, during a summit in July, when Germany will take over the European Council’s rotating presidency.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with backup from France and European Central Bank, warned rest of EU’s leadership that they will be jeopardising bloc’s economic recovery and risking a market rout if they fail to complete negotiations over a massive stimulus package. The EU’s 27 leaders held their first debate on a proposed $840 billion plan to help their economies heal from the Covid-19 lockdowns during a video conference and agreed to meet in person next month with aim of reaching an agreement.
The European economy can achieve its environmental transition and become carbon neutral by 2050, Breton also said. “We’ll do it.”
That transition is taking place as part of an industrial strategy, which sees European corporations embracing new methods, models without necessarily harbouring additional costs, Breton said.