Global tax plans targeting billionaires and multinational companies are running aground, with the United States torpedoing reforms under President Donald Trump.The billionaire real estate tycoon has pulled the United States out of an international deal on taxing multinationals and threatened tariffs on countries that target US tech giants.Here is a look at the state of play:- Big tech taxes -Countries have accused Amazon, Microsoft, Google owner Alphabet and Facebook’s parent company Meta of sidestepping local taxes.Trump issued a warning on February 21 to countries that would hit big tech and other US companies with fines or taxes that are “discriminatory, disproportionate” or designed to transfer funds to local companies.”My administration will act, imposing tariffs and taking such other responsive actions necessary to mitigate the harm to the United States,” he said in the memo.The move reopens a rift between Washington and its allies over taxing digital services.During his first term, Trump threatened to slap tariffs on US imports of champagne and French cheese after France rolled out a digital services tax in 2019.Seven other countries have followed France’s lead since then.The tax generated 780 million euros ($887 million) for the French government last year.Now the European Union is threatening to impose a tax on digital services if negotiations fail over Trump’s plans to impose 20 percent tariffs on EU goods.Britain, which is hoping to strike a trade deal with the United States, may reconsider its own digital levy, which currently brings in £800 million annually.British Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said the digital tax is not “something that can never change or we can never have a conversation about”.- Global corporate tax -Nearly 140 countries struck a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies, an agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.The OECD agreement has two “pillars”.The first provides for the taxation of companies in countries where they make their profits, a move aimed at limiting tax evasion. It primarily targets tech giants.Pillar two, which sets a minimum global rate of 15 percent, has been adopted by around 60 economies, including Brazil, Britain, Canada, the EU, Switzerland and Japan.Daniel Bunn, head of the Tax Foundation, a US non-profit think-tank, said negotiations on implementation of the first pillar “have been stalled for some time”, even under Joe Biden’s presidency.Franco-American economist Gabriel Zucman told AFP that the EU’s reaction in the coming weeks “will be crucial”.”If the EU and other countries give up and allow American multinationals to exempt themselves, it will unfortunately spell the end of this very important agreement,” he said.- Tax the rich -Efforts to tax the world’s ultra-wealthy are also stalling.Brazil used its time as chair of the G20 to push for a plan to impose a two percent minimum tax on the net worth of individuals with more than $1 billion in assets, a project estimated to raise as much as $250 billion per year.The Biden administration baulked at the plan and it is unlikely to get any traction with Trump — a billionaire himself and proponent of tax cuts — at the White House.Almost a third of the world’s billionaires are from the United States — more than China, India and Germany combined, according to Forbes magazine.At a recent conference in Paris, French economist Thomas Piketty said the world cannot wait for the G20 to all agree.”We need individual countries to act as soon as they can,” he said.”History suggests that once you have a couple of countries who adopt a certain kind of reform, in particular powerful countries, it becomes sort of a new standard.”

If “Andor” — which returns from Tuesday for its second and final season — has been received as one of the very best “Star Wars” TV series, that is largely thanks to the grittier, more adult approach taken by its creator Tony Gilroy.That standpoint — far, far away from the family-pleasing tone often encountered in the “Star Wars” universe run by the Disney empire — should be of no surprise to those who watched the 2002 action thriller “The Bourne Identity”, written by Gilroy.Its genesis was already evident in the 2016 “Star Wars” movie “Rogue One”, which Gilroy co-wrote — and which serves as the climax to “Andor”, which recounts the rebellion leading up to that film’s events.”Everything is emotionally charged” because “we’re getting close to ‘Rogue One’,” Diego Luna, the actor who plays the protagonist Cassian Andor, told AFP.For Disney, the success of “Andor” stands out as a new hope for a franchise that has become hit-or-miss with audiences in recent years.That is why it has banked heavily on the 12-episode story, which cost a staggering $645 million to make, according to Forbes magazine.Where “Rogue One” was about a rebel suicide mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, with “characters that sacrifice everything for a cause”, “Andor” is about how one of those characters “gets there”, Luna said.Unlike in a typical hero’s journey, the series explores the motives and dark sides of both camps: the rebels and the Empire. It spends time with figures such as a rebel alliance operative played by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard.Gilroy, speaking to AFP with Luna during a Paris visit, said the original plan was for five seasons of “Andor”, but he came to realise “there’s no physical way to do it” given “the volume of work” required.The result was two seasons, but with episodes that were “more intense, more complex in every possible way”, Luna said.With season one finishing in late 2022 with a stunning 96-percent rating on the critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, season two has star billing on the Disney+ streaming platform. That season hits the small screen from Tuesday in the United States, or from Wednesday in France, Germany, Italy and other territories.- Revolutionary reading -“Andor” is not the only hit “Star Wars” television series.”The Mandalorian”, which preceded it, excited audiences for the first two seasons before interest waned in its third. That story will move to the cinemas, with a film scheduled for release next year.But “Andor” has impressed fans and critics with its darker vibe, greater political themes and more realistic tone. Gilroy said his approach to the series was informed by a decades-long reading obsession about uprisings — “all this crazy stuff I’ve learnt about… the Russian Revolution and… the French Revolution, and Thomas Paine and Oliver Cromwell and the Haitian Revolution and the Roman Revolution and Zapata.””I mean, it’s all in there,” he said.The second season focuses on the use of propaganda, looking at the tragic destiny of a planet called Ghorman, for which Gilroy and his team embarked on serious world-building, imagining its economy, language, culture and dress.Part of the inspiration came from a French TV series about a village living under German occupation in World War II, “A French Village”.”I loved that show… I had some of those actors in my head” while writing about Ghorman’s inhabitants, he said.Even if some people might see some echoes of today’s Earth in aspects of “Andor”, Gilroy said a writer’s horizon, stretching years ahead, did not allow him to anticipate current events. But, he said, “the sad truth is that history is… rinse and repeat,” adding: “We so commonly feel, narcissistically, that we live in unique times.”Technology might change, the rhetoric might alter, “but the dynamic of oppression and resistance are a Catherine wheel. It just keeps going. I think it’s timeless, sadly.” 

Commercial plane prices, already lifted in recent years due to pandemic supply chain shocks, are poised to climb further as Boeing and Airbus are buffeted by trade tariffs.”Compared with 2018, prices for commercial jets have risen by around 30 percent,” an aviation expert told AFP on condition of anonymity.The American and European aerospace giants have grappled with higher expenses for primary materials such as titanium, components and energy, as well as overall labor cost pressures.To resolve a labor strike, Boeing late last year agreed to a new contract with its Seattle-based machinist union that lifted wages by 38 percent over four years.Just months earlier, Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier to both Boeing and Airbus, reached an agreement with similar wage increases.Richard Aboulafia, managing director at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said items that have inflated “at a particularly high rate” include castings, forgings and “anything titanium… especially since all that Russian capacity has been cut off from the US and, to a lesser extent, from Europe.” Aboulafia estimates prices for materials and equipment have risen 40 percent since 2021. That’s before Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, which are used in planes.”It’s kind of ironic, raw materials were not a problem, but Donald Trump is determined to make them a problem,” Aboulafia said.Inflation in aviation has been accelerating, and “that’s only going to get worse with these tariffs that are being imposed,” agreed John Persinos, editor-in-chief at Aircraft Value News. “These tariffs are disastrous.”What’s more, the newer generation of planes, such as the Boeing 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A321neo, can command premium prices thanks to their lower fuel consumption.- Listed prices a ‘fiction’ -The impact of tariffs is not reflected in the companies’ stale official pricing literature. Boeing has not updated its figures since 2023, while Airbus’ catalogue is untouched since 2018.”Catalogue prices were a complete work of fiction,” Aboulafia said. “You got 50 percent off for showing up dressed nicely.”Airbus decided to abandon the use of catalogue prices “a long time ago” because they “were not closely correlated to the final price, which was based on each specific contract in terms of plane configuration and detail,” the company said.The aerospace companies will often negotiate additional services such as plane support or training at a discounted level when aircraft are delivered, said the expert who requested anonymity.Such deals make the official listed price less meaningful, they added. Contracts for new planes typically include adjustment clauses for inflation, while pricing can also be tweaked if deliveries are delayed.Since the contracts are usually denominated in dollars, there can also be allowances for swings in exchange rates.Boeing told AFP that it evaluates price based on production costs and other market factors, but does not discuss the details publicly since they pertain to competition.Both Boeing and Airbus currently have a substantial backlog of plane orders that will keep them occupied through the end of the decade. But that strong demand has not in itself boosted pricing much.”It’s a very competitive situation,” said the expert. “The two companies fight for every transaction and that impacts pricing.”Most airlines opt to do business with both Airbus and Boeing.”Before Covid, Boeing and Airbus competed for a market where prices were really lower, maybe even too low,” said Manfred Hader of consultancy Roland Berger.But airlines have been able to afford more expensive planes in the post-lockdown period, where there has been strong travel demand, boosting ticket prices and airline profitability, Hader said.In February, Japanese carrier ANA ordered 77 planes from Boeing, Airbus and Brazilian firm Embraer, providing updated catalogue prices that show an increase from earlier levels.The order priced Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner at around $386 million and the 737 MAX at $159 million, compared with $292 million and $121.6 million in 2023, according to AFP calculations.It priced the Airbus A321neo at around $148 million compared with the $129.5 million in the 2018 catalogue.