One hundred days of Trump: Massive increase in tax competition expected

"A lot of questions have come up or remain unanswered in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. Companies are still uncertain about the direction the US government is moving in. On the one hand, the ambitious tax cuts announced in the new administration’s tax reform plan pose a clear challenge to Germany as a business location, and will massively intensify international tax competition. On the other hand, there is no sign of a concrete proposal to renew infrastructure.

The course the US president has adopted in trade policy is worrying. On the up side, the US administration has so far refrained from introducing punitive tariffs or import duties. But initiatives like "Buy American, Hire American" and casting doubt on the international trade order are detrimental to the US population. They represent a drastic turnaround in US trade policy. International collaboration with the US, in the context of the G20 for example, has become more difficult. The criticism the US has levelled at Germany's trade surplus was and is wrong.

The fact is that trade policy is not a zero-sum game. The deep trade relations between Europe and the US benefit both markets. The US is our biggest export market for goods, and German companies provide almost 700,000 jobs in the US. German industry wants to maintain and expand this level of cooperation but to do that we need a reliable and predictable political environment."