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| - Ireland has "significant reservations" over a plan by US President Joe Biden for a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15 percent, Dublin's finance minister Paschal Donohoe told Sky News on Tuesday. "We do have really significant reservations regarding a global minimum effective tax rate status at such a level that it means only certain countries, and certain size economies can benefit from that base -- we have a really significant concern about that," Donohoe said. According to Sky News, Donohoe said that Ireland intends to hold its corporate tax rate at 12.5 percent for a few more years. Talks are currently under way at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Negotiations (OECD) for a global minimum corporate tax rate. Washington floated the idea as part of a push to find an agreement with major economies on imposing a shared minimum corporate tax to end a race to lower taxes. France and Germany, the EU's biggest economies, have backed the US proposal, and their support is key for the OECD talks. Last week, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Paris "can live with 15 percent, it can be a good compromise". However, "the key question is not the figure," Le Maire said, insisting that a quick political agreement was key and needed no later than a G20 meeting in Italy in July. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has also hailed the US proposal as "really a big progress" that brought negotiations to a "point where we can see that we will make it." The OECD negotiations are intended to stop what Washington calls a "race to the bottom" among countries to see who can offer the lowest rate. cdu/spm
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