The United States has been exempted from a newly agreed global deal designed to prevent large corporations from shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions.

The Guardian reports that the deal — signed onto by nearly 150 countries, and finalized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — was originally conceived in 2021 as a way to stop multinational companies from moving earnings to tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and sets a minimum global corporate tax of 15%. Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury Secretary under Democratic President Joe Biden, was one of the main forces behind the agreement in its early stages, and Republicans have long been critical of the plan, arguing that it would cede U.S. tax sovereignty to foreign governments and unfairly expose American companies to overseas taxes.

In a January 5 statement, current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised the OECD's finalized deal as an "historic victory in preserving U.S. sovereignty and protecting American workers and businesses from extraterritorial overreach." However, tax transparency nonprofit FACT Coalition expressed skepticism in the wake of the agreement's unveiling, warning that it "risks nearly a decade of progress on corporate taxation only to allow the largest, most profitable American companies to keep parking profits in tax havens."

“The Trump administration has chosen to prioritize maintaining rock-bottom taxes for big corporations to the detriment of ordinary Americans and our allies across the globe," FACT policy director Zorka Milin said in a January 5 news release.