Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholes (SPD) has expressed confidence that countries like Ireland will abandon resistance to the imposition of a global minimum tax on large corporations.

“In my experience, global agreements against EU general law tax exemptions are still in place,” Scholes said Friday (July 2) after a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Washington. “That’s why I assume there will be a similar understanding in the European Union.”

Scholes said future global laws will already allow action. “But it is certainly good and absolutely necessary for the European Union to accept this on its own.” He was “very confident” in this question.

130 companies agreed to a minimum tax rate of 15 per cent for global companies in a discussion of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Thursday (July 1). It aims to end tax competition between states and end tax evasion by large corporations. The finance ministers of the G20 group will discuss the issue in Venice next week.

However, there is resistance from countries around the world, such as Ireland and Hungary, to the imposition of minimum taxes. For example, Ireland has the lowest tax rate at 12.5 percent, thus attracting European branches of US technology companies Facebook, Google and Apple. Irish Finance Minister Pascal Donohue said on Thursday that the deal was widely supported by Ireland but not a 15 per cent tax cut.

A lot more needs to be clarified before reaching a comprehensive agreement.