Wednesday August 21, 2019 9WORLD
Public appearance
Tech giants decry French digital tax
Foreigners
arrested over
ivory bangles
A Spanish woman has become
the second foreigner in a week
to be arrested at Kenya’s inter-
national airport for wearing an
ivory bangle, the wildlife ser-
vice said Monday.
Maria Pich-Aguilera, 50, was
arrested on Sunday evening and
pleaded guilty, paying a fine of 1
million shillings ($9,800) for
illegal possession of ivory.
The Kenya Wildlife Service
said in a statement she was “ar-
rested at Jomo Kenyatta Inter-
national Airport with an ivory
bangle,” while traveling from
Nairobi to Tanzania’s financial
capital Dar es Salaam.
The woman was allowed to
leave for Tanzania after paying
her fine.
Last week a Frenchwoman
was arrested at the airport on
her way from France to Mayo-
tte for possession of an ivory
bracelet.
She pleaded guilty and also
paid the 1 million shilling fine –
the alternative is 12 months in
prison.
“We noticed this new trend
where ivory is smuggled
through worked or processed
bangles and we have increased
surveillance,” said an investi-
gator speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Global trade in elephant
ivory has largely been outlawed
since 1989 after the animal’s
numbers plunged from mil-
lions in the mid-20th century.AFPDisgraced financier Jeffrey Ep-
stein wrote a will two days be-
fore he died, putting his $
million in assets into a trust
with unnamed beneficiaries,
the New York Post reported
Monday.
Epstein, a wealthy hedge
fund manager who befriended
many politicians and celebrities
over the years, hung himself
in prison on August 10 as he
awaited trial on sex trafficking
charges.
On August 8, he signed a
last will and testament filed in
the Virgin Islands, where he
owned a private island, trans-
ferring his wealth into “The
1953 Trust,” the Post reported.It posted a copy of the will
online showing that Epstein
claimed he had more than
$56.5 million in cash, equities
of over $300 million as well as
a fixed income of more than
$14 million. Epstein also listed
six luxury properties, including
in New York, Florida and Paris
and more than $18 million in
“aviation assets, automobiles
and boats,” the Post added.
The document did not name
any listed beneficiaries. Bloom-
berg News reported that the
move could make it more dif-
ficult for Epstein’s alleged vic-
tims to sue his estate.
Several women have filed
lawsuits seeking damages forsexual abuse.
Epstein was accused of traf-
ficking girls as young as 14 for
sex. He denied the charges but
faced up to 45 years in jail if
found guilty.
The Post’s report came as
The New York Times released
new details about Epstein’s fi-
nal days in Manhattan’s high-
security Metropolitan Correc-
tional Center.
Citing sources, the newspa-
per said he hated his vermin-
infested cell so much that he
paid for lawyers to meet him
for up to 12 hours a day in a dif-
ferent room. He rarely washed
and slept on the floor instead of
his bed, they said.The US Justice Department
and the FBI are investigating
how one of the country’s most
high-profile prisoners was able
to kill himself just weeks after
an apparent earlier suicide at-
tempt.
Epstein was convicted in
2008 in a Florida state court of
paying young girls for sexual
massages at his Palm Beach
mansion. He served just 13
months in jail over the Flori-
da charges under a plea deal
struck by the then federal pros-
ecutor in the state, Alex Acosta,
who was forced to resign as US
labor secretary over the issue.AFPAmerican tech giants Amazon, Face-
book and Google joined forces on Mon-
day to decry the French digital tax as ret-
roactive and discriminatory.
US President Donald Trump is con-
sidering retaliating against the tax – ap-
proved July 11 – with punitive tariffs on
French wine imports, prompting an in-
vestigation by the Office of the US Trade
Representative (USTR).
The so-called GAFA (Google, Apple,
Facebook and Amazon) companies ap-
peared at a USTR hearing on possible
countermeasures and were unanimous
in their complaints, calling the tax a
“troubling precedent.”
The tax, which Washington considers
unfair, adds yet another bone of conten-
tion to the transatlantic trade disputes
that now also include steel, aluminum,automobiles, aircraft and agriculture.
The proposed three percent tax on
total annual revenues of companies that
provide services to French consumers
applies only to the largest tech compa-
nies, which are mostly US-based.
For Amazon, where France repre-
sents the second-largest European mar-
ket for e-commerce, the levy “creates a
double taxation,” said Peter Hiltz, direc-
tor of tax planning for the online retail
giant.
Some 58 percent of Amazon’s sales
are through partner companies, which
stand to take the hit.
The tax “negatively impacts Amazon
and thousands of small and medium
businesses,” Hiltz said.
“Amazon cannot absorb the expens-
es,” and the company “already informedpartners that their fee will increase start-
ing October 1,” he added.
Some internet heavyweights have
taken advantage of low-tax jurisdictions
in places like Ireland while paying next
to nothing in other countries where they
derive huge profits.
The US has been pushing for an over-
arching agreement on taxation of digital
commerce through the Group of 20 eco-
nomic forum, but France pressed ahead
on its own.
It is “an imperfect solution to address
an outdated tax system,” said Jennifer
McCloskey of the Information Technol-
ogy Industry Council, which supports a
multilateral agreement under the aus-
pices of the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development.
Hiltz agreed, saying the companiesbelieve “an international agreement un-
der the OECD is reachable.”
The tax will apply to about 30 compa-
nies with at least $28 million in sales in
France and $831 million worldwide.
But it does not apply to other internet
operators like media companies.
The tax touches “a handful of internet
business when every sector is becoming
digital,” Google’s Nicholas Bramble said
at the hearing.
Taxing only this part of the industry
“doesn’t make sense.”
The companies also complained that
the tax is retroactive, since it will apply
from the beginning of 2019 – some-
thing they have “never seen” before, ac-
cording to Alan Lee of Facebook.AFPEpstein put assets in trust two days before suicide: report
Trump considering retaliatory tariffs on wine imports
Page Editor:
wanghuayun@
globaltimes.com.cnA park
employee
holds an
orangutan as
it is shown
to the public
after several
months in
quarantine
at Bali Safari
Marine Park
in Gianyar
regency,
Indonesia
on Monday.
Indonesian
authorities
on March
22 arrested
a Russian
tourist for
attempting
to smuggle
the
orangutan
out of the
country in
his suitcase.
Photo: VCG