US president Donald Trump. Image: Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock
US president singles out Ireland as a competitive target for bringing jobs back to America.
Ireland’s 12.5pc corporation tax – the envy of Europe – has a powerful new enemy in the form of US president Donald Trump.
In a speech on tax reform in Springfield, Missouri, Trump singled out several countries, including Ireland, and pledged to cut America’s corporate tax to 15pc.
‘With these countries and almost every country, we have massive trade deficits – numbers that you would not believe. But this administration is going to fix that’
– DONALD TRUMP
He said that the US has haemorrhaged jobs to countries such as Ireland because their economic policies have worked.
“They made their taxes lower – and far lower, in many cases, than ours – and jobs left our country. Large corporations changed their business models by exporting jobs to other countries and then shipping their goods back to the United States, where they’d make massive profits, and they wouldn’t be paying tax to us either.”
Trump has a new hobby horse
Without taking into account factors such as education policy, or the fact that Irish firms employ as many people in the US as US firms do in Ireland, Trump appears to believe it is all down to the money.
“Today, we are still taxing our businesses at 35pc – in some cases, way above 40pc when you include state and local taxes. The United States is now behind France, behind Germany, behind Canada, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and many other nations.
“Also, with these countries and almost every country, we have massive trade deficits – numbers that you would not believe. But this administration is going to fix that,” he said.
US President Donald Trump. Image: Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock
