The European Union leadership wanted to make peace with the United States. The end of the trade war, which has continued since 2018, is one of the priority goals of the EU’s foreign economic policy, writes CNBC.
Brussels adopted a resolution entitled “A new agenda in EU-US relations for the sake of global change.” It lists the main areas of work that the union authorities are going to focus on during the presidential term Joe Biden .
In addition to improving trade relations and removing barriers, cooperation on health, climate change, technology and security is on the agenda. Brussels is going to engage in “a transatlantic dialogue about the responsibility of online platforms and technology companies in order to ultimately find the best approach to taxation and avoid distortions in the regulation of the digital economy.”
Taxation of digital companies is a subject of disputes between EU members, as well as between Brussels and Washington. This is the name for companies that sell products on the Internet, regardless of the location of the buyer. This allows them to pay taxes at their place of registration, which is why many digital companies (among them the leading roles are played by Google , Apple , Facebook and Amazon ) are registered in low-tax jurisdictions, in particular in Ireland.
Taxes of digital companies are claimed by different EU countries (where buyers of their products are located) and the USA, which consider themselves the homeland of most of them. A single decision on this issue has not yet been made.
The head of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen noted that the European Union hopes to “restore ties” with the United States after four years of cooling off under the Trump presidency.