OECD flags

Since passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, European bureaucrats have taken aim at the success of the law, threatened to designate the U.S. a tax haven, and have even proposed a global minimum tax on digital innovation aimed at iconic American businesses.

Based on these acts, it has become clear that the U.S. needs an Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) who is well versed in the TCJA – specifically the international provisions of the law – and can clearly and credibly advocated for and defend the pro-growth policies that your administration has enacted.

In a letter to President Donald Trump, ATR urged the nomination of an ambassador to the OECD that will defend American competitiveness and advocate for pro-growth policies.

Similar letters have also been released by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Congressman Jim Renacci (R-Ohio).

The full ATR letter can be found here and is below in full.

Dear President Trump:

I urge you to nominate an ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is crucial that your administration has a representative at the OECD that can defend American competitiveness and advocate for pro-growth policies.

Under your administration, the economy is surging thanks to deregulation and the passage of tax reform. The economy grew 4 percent in the second quarter of 2018 and has averaged over 3 percent since the start of your presidency. Job openings are at a record high, unemployment is at a 17 year low, and American families are seeing increased take-home pay.

Since passage of tax reform, the U.S. has even been named the most competitive economy in the world, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Center.

Unfortunately, this economic resurgence is being threatened by European bureaucrats that are taking aim at the success of tax reform.  

High-tax, big government European nations have taken aim at the tax reform law and have demanded the OECD review key international provisions as Harmful Tax Practices. 

Some countries have even gone as far as to suggest that the OECD designate the U.S. a tax haven, and it is expected that the EU will launch a legal challenge to the tax law in the World Trade Organization.

EU leaders have also called for a discriminatory, global minimum tax on digital innovation, which would be imposed on the digital revenue of tech companies, based on the concern from Europe that companies are paying too little.

This tax is a thinly veiled attempt to target US businesses, as it is predominately aimed at iconic American companies out of Silicon Valley.

Ironically, European nations are trying to undermine US tax law that seeks to clarify the tax base and the very problems that the EU digital tax purportedly seeks to address.

The U.S. needs an Ambassador to the OECD who is well versed in the TCJA – specifically the international provisions of the law – and can clearly and credibly advocated for and defend the pro-growth policies that your administration has enacted.

Onward,

Grover G. Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform