European Union Newcomers Anger France, Germany With Tax Cuts(GO NEW EUROPE!)

Bloomberg ^ | 06/01/04 | Bloomberg

[Pikamax]

European Union Newcomers Anger France, Germany With Tax Cuts June 1 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union's newest members are using corporate tax cuts to win a bigger share of investment in Europe, and putting pressure on French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to consider tax reductions to spur growth and increase employment.

[Grzegorz 246]

"like a corridor?"

What do you mean?

"If Germany and France make pressure there will be soon a compromise..."

Sorry, but France and Germany may put their pressure in their own @ss.
Government compromise is possible, but voting will be needed. I know result.
European "Constitution" is already dead.

[European Voice]

"like a corridor?"

What do you mean?

I mean some kind like 10% - 30% and the states decide the exatly percents.

"If Germany and France make pressure there will be soon a compromise..."

Sorry, but France and Germany may put their pressure in their own @ss.
Government compromise is possible, but voting will be needed. I know result.
European "Constitution" is already dead.

I don't think so. Now Poland is alone because Spain has changed and alone they won't stop this constitution. Then they would be isolated.

[Atlantic Friend]

Let's be pragmatic, the whole point of the exercise is not to anger any EU member. The new members are democratic states whose officials are supposed to do what's best for their country and constituents.

I think Eastern Europe enters the EU game with an even hand. On areas like technology, they suffer from a lack of top-rated assets - but not on technical proficiency from their scientists, engineers and workers. So an obvious move is to propose major firms everywhere to benefit from this technology-capable manpower, along with tax incentives. This would help these nations develop their own technological assets.

On the other hand, France and Germany are obviously worried to see their modest growth endangered by a redeployment of foreign investment, and also by the shutting down of Franco-German plants that would reopen on Poland or the Czech Republic. They can't prevent this from happening, but they can signal their anxiousness to the EU so as to find a common middle ground. It's in a lesser scale, but it's more or less like a G-8 meeting where all the players try to reach an agreement for the overall strategy they will develop.

Me, I'm no big fan of a supranational EU. In fact, I don't see it happening because as Paul Kennedy put it it's the ongoing competition between the European powers that fueled the economical and social progress of the continent. So, I welcome an EU where the countries jockey to gain comparative advantages, it's what we elect our officials for, after all ! Of course, the competition must have limits, if only because our economies are intertwined and because the EU is supposed to be a cooperation forum.

[pepsionice]

Germany will cry for 20 years for allowing those countries to enter the EU. Out of the top 500 companies in Germany...I will bet that 350 of them have plans in the works for moving operations and production into the east. It may take four years...but Poland is going to wipe Germany out financially over this whole deal. The labor unions in Germany will stand there in shock as jobs disappear...and they can't blame GW...they can only blame themselves.

[DoughtyOne]

Pat thinks we should raise taxes?

[rrrod]

The french and the germans, scum all, are at it again, trying to weasel into Iraqs oil....sooner or later we will need to deal with them forcefully. More Americans are starting to view them as enemies rather than allies..so be it.

[1rudeboy]

Actually, Pat is silent on taxes. But I'm sure he's yelping, much like Mssrs. Chirac and Schroeder, about all those high-paying manufacturing jobs fleeing overseas.

[European Voice]

These opinions are a very sad thing and if you think about it it is terrible and unacceptable. I'm lacking words to express how it is.

The Western nations that beat the communism should stand together unseparable and do not allow to be separated because of a war against a dictator. And I don't mean the governments (I was against this war, too) I mean the average American and German and what they think about each other. We betray our common values like freedom and democracy when we work against each other and feel a secret contentment when the other gets it in the neck.

[DoughtyOne]

My resolution to the problem the EU is facing with their corporations being enticed into Easter Europe, would be to encourage their corporations to set up shop in those Eastern nations for domestic consumption.

If Mercedes Benz wants to open a manufacturing plant in Poland, let them do so as long as those cars are sold in Poland.

I know you differ with me on this, but I do not think it's wise to completely gutt the more advanced nations, by moving manufacturing jobs out of them.

When these practices are implemented to their optimum, we have situations where nations like China obtain access to nearly all technology, with almost no expense for R & D. Should you and I have to pay for the R & D to gift to China? Should we allow less desirable nations like China obtain that tech? Should we allow third world nations to have that tech for free?

These are issues that I do not think get addressed adequately enough under today's current business climate. All too often we are finding our foreign policy driven by super-corporations. When Loral give missile tech to China, it was already too late by the time the street was aware of it. Now Chinese missles have MIRV tech and multiple warhead technology that they should have never had.

I think there are reasons for us to be skeptical of our current trade practices, although I don't always agree with Pat's angle.

[americanbychoice2]

Just take a look at how the German media treats it's so called Ally, the United States. I for one am tired of the daily Anti-American tirades by Goebbels Gesellen.
Now take a look at the US media, you won't see any Anti German Rhetoric.
Here at FR you will see individual opinions expressed fueled mostly by emotions at the total one sided reporting overseas.
Our own Media is very leftist oriented and criticises it's own country at every turn. I don't like that either, however, Americans are very self-critical. That I don't see at all in Germany, blame the US first is obviously their mantra.

[McGavin999]

Good! I like the Poles.....A LOT! I want us to move some of our bases to Poland too, it will help their economy, increase tourism, and get our soldiers into a friendlier environment.

[NZerFromHK]

I think a key to the whole problem is that most people in politics (and media pundits, which in turn influence much of public opinions) don't understand economics too well - BTW this is not limited to France or Germany, as New Zealand, Hong Kong or the United States, indeed everywhere in thw world, also have plenty of these types of people.

It would be dream if everyone understands economic liberalizations like Rogernomics of 1980s New Zealand are for a country's long term good despite short-term pain and so supports them. Unfortunately it is not easy for people to fathom the idea of "sink or swim!" and very often countries won't embark on structural reforms unless pushed literally to the cliff. (NZ in 1984 was a mess after Sir Robert Muldoon's price and wage-freezing amid stagflation, Jimmy Carter's USA cicra 1980 wasn't that good either, and everyone knows the famous "winter of discontent" just before Margaret Thatcher-era UK) I really hope there are enough sense left among French (and German) politicans so they can push forward reforms before it is too late.

[European Voice]

The US are criticized but this needn't be anti-American. And the most things they say are right. The American government thought they would be met with a friendly reception and there were many people who said that this wasn't right but the government began the war without any plans for after-war.

And saying these are Goebbels Gesellen is a bit hard. By the way, kannst du deutsch?

But what I really wanted to say is that the peoples get divided and this is the really bad thing because governments change but the citizens stay the same and they are the foundations on which a true friendship between countries grounds.

[americanbychoice2]

Yes, I am fluent in German, was born and raised there.
The media is molding public opinion everywhere. I read at least 5 German papers daily. Mostly, everything is reported as fact instead of a question and never retracted.