Speaking from Baden-Baden on Saturday 18 March, the Finance Ministers of the G20 reiterated their commitment to implement the OECD action plan to fight tax optimisation, more commonly known as BEPS (base erosion and profit shifting), in a consistent and timely fashion.
This is likely to reassure several European delegations, which have expressed concern at the ambiguity of the new Trump administration on this dossier. At the most recent Ecofin Council, Belgium and Luxembourg once again stressed the need to have equal competition rules at global level, a 'level playing field'. They argue that it should be assured that the EU is not the only one to implement BEPS. The G20 has called on the OECD to report back to it on progress in the adoption and application of the action plan.
The Europeans were also awaiting signals from the Americans on financial regulation. Readers may recall that international negotiations on tightening up bank capital requirements (finalisation of the Basel III rules), taking place within the Basel Committee, did not lead to an agreement by the end of 2016, even though the negotiators had undertaken to do so. The Europeans have concerns that the internal models recommended by the European negotiators will lead to a substantial increase in own funds requirements for the European banking industry (see EUROPE 116430. The G20 reiterates its support for the work of the Basel Committee to finalise the reform in question, “without further significantly increasing overall capital requirements across the banking sector, while promoting a level playing field”.
The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who is steering the discussions at the G20 this year, said that he had had a fairly consensual discussion with his American opposite number on the broader question of financial regulation. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)