1. Historic Tax Deal
The G20 summit happened before the COP26 summit for climate change and was expected to set the tone for what countries will decide to do - this was the first in-person gathering for the countries gathered. The summit addressed climate change, Covid, and the United States proposed a tax deal that would result in increased businesses taxes of at least 15%. This was an attempt to address the concerns over large companies using methods to lower the amount of taxes they have to pay. Everyone present agreed to the deal; it is expected to be adopted soon and enforced by 2023. This is expected to be very significant for the global economy and it is expected that businesses and workers will benefit despite companies paying more tax.
2. JCB Signs New Multi-Billion Pound Hydrogen Deal
In the same week as COP26, JCB have just signed a new multi-billion pound hydrogen deal which will see them becoming the UK’s largest supplier of the green fuel, and will help the UK achieve its net zero target. Hydrogen is seen as being a viable alternative to fossil fuels in heavy industry as it doesn’t release carbon dioxide when burned. However, a lot is imported from Australia where they have a surplus. Therefore, the plan needed a distributor, and JCB stepped up to the plate.
Earlier this year, they also announced they’d be investing £100 million on producing a super-efficient hydrogen engine to power its machinery in the future.
3. ‘Non-EU Salt and Pepper’ Chicken Label
Morrisons labelled their chicken saying “Non-EU Salt and Pepper”. This has brought a lot of negative reactions from customers saying that it is promoting anti-EU perspectives. Morrisons said that that was not their intention and they were not trying to share a political agenda but rather following regulations. They followed this by saying they would amend it and apologized for the wording but that they would need to include it somewhere due to packaging laws. Following Brexit, next year, instead of saying non-EU, if the country of origin is unclear then companies are expected to say non-UK.
4. EU-US Steel Deal
The US and the EU have finally signed a reconciliatory deal which will see them cut tariffs on steel and aluminium products following the trade dispute hangover from the Trump administration.
The EU was set to further increase tariffs on US goods next month, but this resolution eases tensions between the trading partners. Both sides were under increasing pressure from steelmakers and buyers of the goods to resolve the problem which saw the retaliations hit unrelated industries such as alcohol and motorbikes.
For the UK, though, this is not good news as similar tariffs have not been lifted, leaving UK producers one step behind. The International Trade Secretary assures those involved that the UK is in talks to remove these barriers to trade in the UK too.
5. Big Tech Loses Money
Apple has a new policy called App Tracking Transparency which impacts how apps can track users. Essentially, it becomes more difficult for companies to target their advertisements towards users which increases their costs. This change was, however, limited to mobile devices so companies that have a user base that accesses their platform on different devices such as laptops are affected less. Companies now have to ask the user for permission before being able to track what the consumer is doing on their iPhone beyond just their own app.
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