US confident EU holdouts will back OECD tax deal

BRUSSELS – United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday she was confident that European Union holdouts opposing a global tax reform would find a way to accept the deal.

Yellen said she made her arguments backing the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) deal in talks with ministers from Ireland and Estonia, two of the countries that have yet to accept a plan that has been approved by 132 countries.

Meeting in Venice on Saturday, G20 ministers, including Yellen, endorsed the plan to overhaul the way multinational companies, including US digital giants, are taxed.

"My message is that this is an agreement that is historic... and it's important that everyone try to get on board," Yellen told reporters in Brussels.

"Obviously that involves compromises and my sense is that those countries want to find a way to get to 'yes'," she said after her meetings with the holdouts.

Yellen added that she was "pleased" by a decision by the EU to delay its plan for a European digital tax in an effort to not jeopardize the global deal.

The former central banker said the EU tax, which was supposed to be announced this month, would have come at a "delicate time", when she is gathering support for the OECD plan in Washington.

"I think it avoids throwing something into the negotiations that would be unclear and could complicate our progress," she said.