And what would you do with a spare 25 Billion Euros . Thats the question facing the irish Government Today as it delivers its budget following a huge Tax Windfall from Tech Firms. Live from london, this is business today. Im lukwesa burak. We start in the us where in the last 30 minutes tens of thousands of East And Gulf Coast Port workers have started striking for the first time in nearly 50 years. This comes after the international longshoremen s association and the us Maritime Alliance were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of their contract. The strikes will halt trade in a wide range of goods and disrupt the Countrys Economy just as we enter the final weeks before the president ial election. Our North America Business correspondent Ritika Gupt the two major sticking points between international longshoreman s association and the us Maritime Alliance are wages and automation for the workers are unhappy with the current contract which spanned the pandemic and dockworkers st
Secured their biggest pay rise since 1991, giving the central bank the confidence to make its move. One that puts decades of deflation in the rear view mirror. Lets go live to shizuoka in japan and Seijiro Takeshita professor at the univesity of shizuoka. Good to have you on the programme. We knew this was coming, it has happened, give us your reaction. Us your reaction. Well, as you said, it us your reaction. Well, as you said. It was us your reaction. Well, as you said, it was expected us your reaction. Well, as you said, it was expected because of the Pre Requisites were set, basically, 5. 2 increase by Larger Companies, pay rise. We expected only form per sense of that history very well. We have the Inflation Target which is to present a morejust been fulfilled so basically, prerequisites for lifting off from this secure operation of negative Interest Rate is finally here. It negative Interest Rate is finally here. Finally here. It is finally here, finally here. It is finally here.
To the deflationary spiral however now because theres a strong trend of Wage Increases, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki says its over. Joining me now is seijiro takeshita, whos a professor at the university of shizuoka. Thank you for being with us today. Talk to us first of all, this is a pretty unique set of circumstances that japan has pretty unique set of circumstances thatjapan has been pretty unique set of circumstances that japan has been through for the past generation. It is todays Declaration Calls for celebration . Yes, i would think so. Concerning the fact that for two decades, we havent seen any wage rise. Where the only country to do that. There are a lot of recurring profits, bits nine redeeming to their employees. This is, in that sense, a remarkable change. In most of the estimates, there were around 4 , but now its been reported to be around 5. 2, exceeding expectations. fist been reported to be around 5. 2, exceeding expectations. Been reported to be around 5. 2, ex
It looks like hes going to concentrate more on the households rather than on businesses. And therefore, there are two major taxes that he could hope for, one is income tax and the other one is National Insurance contribution. Income tax is a broader tax and it would cost him more money, whereas National Insurance contribution focuses on people at work and will cost him a little bit less. Yeah, i mean having a bit less money to play with, i suppose, do you think perhaps that might give us a clearer sense of the conservative priorities here . Obviously, we know there might be an election coming. Its actually who that money goes to, where to target votes, maybe. That is a very good question because it does look like they are going to target consumers or households rather than businesses. Whereas if you look at what the priorities are in terms of raising growth potential, you do want to improve and get Business Investment growing faster. So that is really a very big question as to where th