BERLIN: Germany’s finance minister warned the UK against becoming a low-tax haven should Brexit talks with the European Union fail to strike a deal. Wolfgang Schäuble said that the G20 group of the world’s richest countries, which currently includes the UK, has previously ruled against taking such steps, and he would remind British Prime Minister Theresa May of this.
He said: “I have heard Prime Minister May saying the UK will be a truly global economy. A truly global economy has got to stick to what has been agreed globally.”
Schäuble was speaking at the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort in Davos, which is hosting more than 3,000 participants, of which 1,200 are chief executives or company chairs and more than 50 are world leaders.
Earlier at the event, May told leaders that the UK would become a “world leader” on trade as a result of its decision to leave the EU. But on Tuesday (17 January) in May’s much-anticipated keynote speech in London, in which she set out her approach to Brexit, she warned that should the UK fail to reach an agreement with the EU, the country might adopt a low-tax model.
She said: “We would have the freedom to set the competitive tax rates and embrace the policies that would attract the world’s best companies and biggest investors to Britain.”
