up an exit of business news with my colleagues, stephen beardsley, do stay with us if you can for that. that was more on our website. in the meantime, d w dot com, i was there a tele in berlin. thanks for watching the news . ah, canada. i think that's hard and in the end, if you are not allowed to see you anymore, we will send you back. are you familiar with this? not what's your story. ready ready with and i was especially a victim design and part of your story. yeah. chain

only understand this new culture. so you are not the visitor, not against you want to become city info, migrants your platform for reliable information, the can a race to the bottom and corporate taxation be stopped. finance ministers from major economies meet in london today to set a floor for taxation. it's all one of the biggest riddles of recent years. how to tax digital companies, who services are global. also on the show, montenegro wants a new highway, but at what cost? it's financing deal with china has now soured, and threatens to drag in the european union. and california is facing, one of the worst drops and decades. losses are mounting. and so our, here's the,

this will be the new normal under climate change. welcome to the show. i'm seeing beardsley in berlin. how much tax should accompany pay, and to whom should they pay it? as to the trickiest questions in a globalized economy, where the biggest companies can shop around for the lowest rates, many of them tech companies that often pay no taxes in countries where they're most active. a foreign ministers from the g 7 economies are gathering in london today to look for a solution. here's what things currently stand on. i think we're going to see the rates. i'm going to tell them to you. japan has the highest corporate tax rate at almost 31 percent with germany close behind the current corporate tax rate in the u . s. is 21 percent. although the, by the ministration would like to raise that. now ireland, the tax rate, they're less than half of what it is and fellow each member germany. that's important. the reason the e u is the base for big tech companies, like facebook and apple. the u. s. and allies in the g 7 appeared to be coalescing around a corporate tax floor, a 15 percent on germany and france would be on board. that rate could take away

ireland advantage and attracting companies. and for more on this, we joined by to get bigger masses standing by in london. she's our d. w correspondent there. and we're also joined by dominican longer myers. she's an economics professor at catholics university. i see that ingles dot, welcome to you both big. i want to start start with you. corporate minimum tax is the headline for this meeting today. but the, you can also said that it's worried that big tech won't be hit hard enough. what is the concern exactly? well the u. k. has traditionally had the emphasis on the digital services company the you can have a digital services tax where revenue for exam for the search engines or social media platforms. when these revenues are generated, a new car that they apply this tech. so you can wants to make sure that the digital services companies that there is an international agreement,

and that is in the way your a t for, for the u. k. government, however, tex campaign is in the u. k. has said, well, if you really does not support an international agreement, generally on, on this global text deal, if there was, may be some ideological opposition because the 3 top tax havens are actually british territories, dominican, why can a minimum corporate tax rate or what can rather a minimum corporate tax or to 15 percent, which is under discussion right now what canada achieve and what can it likely not achieve? well, it's kind of showed up more national corporations pay at least some tax at the 15 percent rate on their profits. it can stop them from shifting profits to other tax havens that really have a 0 corporate tax rate. however, it won't necessarily imply that firms, especially in the digital economy, most of them are headquartered in the us. it does not imply that these firms will start pay more taxed in europe. most of the additional tax revenue will go to the

us. the biggest ireland is home to big tech companies precisely because of the countries low tax rate, including many of those tech firms that dominica, just referred to facebook. apple for example. how is it likely to respond to efforts to raise that floor? that's obviously going to be a very thorny issue with ireland and celtic tiger economy. many an island associate, that was a really low tax rate, one of the lowest corporate tax rates in europe. and we know that the irish government is pushing what they say a healthy and fat tax competition. so they obviously want to retain this advantage that the have long health. however, we also know that on this meeting i decide of this meeting, the all going to be discussions between the us and also all and to try and overcome because it's not only this meeting that's important. many for example to the u. k.

are pushing for an even larger agreement, possibly for the next g 20 summit. that's also due to be held in summer to make the tax playing field has been an achilles heel for the e u. this idea of creating a common tax policy. if there's progress with the g 7 and then later with the g 20 . what could that do for the block in terms of helping them move forward toward a more common policy? while i think copper text rates in the you are a few sets. so had to regina that is unlikely that we see any agreement towards your new home tax rates. however, for the minimum tax, it's necessary to find a common way of calculating taxable profits. so i could see this as a step towards defining a common pick space in the european union, which would be a good 1st step towards unifying the text systems you to make it. why has taxation

become such a growing global issue in recent years? well, i see 2 reasons. there. first, we seen quite a few crisis that have been costly for government right now. the pandemic earlier, the euro crisis, the financial crisis. so government has needed revenue as a consequence of these crisis. and that has made them want to collect more money from big corporation. since then, the 2nd reason is to corporate taxes. lloyd impact become a more pressing problem over time. the digital economy has grown, although service we've mentioned facebook and as an apple google, they all have a lot of tangible assets that are relatively easy to shift around to shift to texas . have much easier than for a firm that you know, actual needs. a lot of machinery to produce stuff. so you some have been more aggressive than other firms in corporate tech and has been a larger problem in the last couple years. all right, we'll keep our eyes on what happens in london. the progress is made big mos in

london medical longmeyer. thank you both very much. and let's take a look now some of the other business stories making headlines. united airlines is buying 15 ultrafast just from denver based boom, supersonic. they're set to take up passenger flights in 2029, a quarter century after 2 after supersonic travel died out with the retirement of the anglo french concord. supersonics have come under criticism for burning more fuel per passenger than other plains. european union plans on levying import duties on aluminum steel and submit. it comes to c o 2 prices in the you are going up. the e u is imposing the duties to prevent climate damaging cheap imports from competing . you companies. levies could be in full effect by 2026. the white house is banding americans from investing an additional 20, a chinese investing in rather an additional $28.00 chinese firms. due to security concerns,

bringing the full number of blacklisted firms to 59. among them are chinese tucked giant while way and ship makers semiconductor manufacturing international corporation blacklist began during the trunk administration. over the years, china has turned itself into a major lender for infrastructure projects around the world. some of them dubious most of them in poor countries. in 2014, the tiny balkan nation of montenegro turned to bay jane to finance a highway across the rugged nation. it's less than one quarter complete and the 1st bill is already coming. due. montenegro can afford it. this massive construction project for a 177 kilometer long highway through montenegro is being built by a chinese company. the montenegrin government is financing it with a 1000000000 euro loan from a state run chinese bank. that's a lot of debt to take on for a country with an annual g d p of around 4000000000 euros. if we cannot

pay the law, the chinese bank can ask for a present for a portal bicycle and can ask for some mind with that we call can ask to contract to dance for hydropower to take over the railroad. that would allow china to extend its influence in europe and gain access to essential infrastructure. montenegro, ask you to help re pay the 1st installment of the loan. that's due in july, according to the financial times. but brussels quickly rejected the request in the lobby. i think in the medium to long term, it would be better to support montenegro in this area. situation that would allow the country to have closer ties with a european union issue. and then it's montenegro has seen a sharp fallen revenue during the pandemic. its economy depends on tourism,

which has crumbled, but it's not easy for the e. u to provide assistance. the block can't take over the loan payments, especially for projects it's classifies as not economically viable districts one day. the support could consist of helping montenegro restructure its existing debt with china and then make an offer for further financing of infrastructure projects in the future from bytes and in question. and in that sequence, you can at most provide ongoing support to montenegro without giving it any money. but it will still be a heavily indebted country, dependent on paid ging over to the u. s. for california is facing its worst drought in more than 4 decades, forcing farmers to reduce their livestock, the fields barren, even destroyed crops. the hot and dry conditions artifact of climate change. there are also fueling fears of war, devastating wildfires, and that this is the new normal for the state of california

and some feeds down upon his ruddy, dried up fields. farmer job bask works the land he still con his years is 3 drives has forced him to leave one 3rd of his 2 sides and acre farm, unseated the effects for him, and his employees have been devastating. it's an economic disaster. we don't quite crops. we don't have jobs, we don't produce food. and as we saw during the pandemic, you know, this, the industry is essential for everyone. we work to feed, everybody drives the worst california has experienced in more than 4 decades. left federal agencies unable to supply farmers with enough water. as a result, many have either left field barren or turn to cups that are more dr. tolerant than

the grapes. the space is known for swindling snow. mount for mentions is one major reason why or why not just one example of climate change, the realities of which, seasonal laborers know only all too well. let's see if there is no washer they were for farm workers. how are we going to support families in this month? and then the but lack of income is the only fear. the horrifying images of the wildfires of past years are still in people's minds. the hot and dry conditions current be putting crops that risk could be a harbinger of an even bigger disaster. yet to come is a reminder of our top story. this. our g 7 finance ministers are meeting in london

on the agenda. how to tax global tech companies and avoid a race to the bottom and how to shut down tax savings that allows local players to avoid paying their shares. for me in the doing business team here and blend to check us out a lot of the w dot com slash business for more on these and other business stories . invariably thanks, watch the news the forgotten about for a long time last fabio grew and his colleagues are directing traffic again and the piazza, the media transforms into a real once more next to w in. we've got some hot tips for your budget. let me magic

corner check hot spots and some great cultural memorials to boot the w travel off. we go the, the hello and welcome to focus on europe with me live show. thanks for joining us today. relations between the you and bella, ruin have reached freezing point. that's because a strong man look shinkel forest, european passenger plane to land in the bend. lucien capital minsk, one of the passengers, an opposition journalist. he's been arrested. b u as out.