Durbin meets Monsanto CEO, warns about tax avoidance
WASHINGTON • The CEO of Monsanto met Tuesday with one of the chief critics of the company’s potential merger with Syngenta, and Sen. Dick Durbin says he told Monsanto’s Hugh Grant that he would do all he could to change federal law to make it more difficult for companies to move tax liabilities overseas.
A Monsanto spokesperson said the merger with the Swiss agribusiness giant is still in its early stages and and “is not a tax-driven deal.” The spokesperson, Sara Miller, also said that Grant assured Durbin that Monsanto was still committed to the St. Louis region, and to ongoing research there.
Durbin, D-Ill., has co-authored legislation, the “Stop Corporate Inversions Act,” that he says is designed to return almost $34 billion to the treasury over the next 10 years from companies that have established headquarters overseas. The bill would limit the the ability of American corporations to acquire smaller overseas companies and move their tax headquarters abroad, where rates are often lower than in the United States. Durbin said that, if passed, his bill would result in “preventing Monsanto from moving forward with its plan to avoid U.S. taxes by acquiring Syngenta.”
“Like so many large companies in the U.S., Monsanto has prospered in large part due to U.S. taxpayer-funded programs and services,” Durbin said. “Where would Monsanto be without the U.S. farm program and world-class research labs?”
Monsanto has floated the possibility of setting up its legal headquarters in the United Kingdom as part of the proposed $45 billion takeover, but the company’s operations would still be based in the St. Louis area.
The company intends on paying taxes “on all U.S. operations of the merged company” and that the primary goal of the merger was expanding global reach, Miller said.
“We appreciated the opportunity to meet with Sen. Durbin today to share why creating a new company through combining Monsanto and Syngenta will help equip farmers with the tools they need to meet the challenges of feeding a growing population,” she said.
“As we shared with Sen. Durbin, this is not a tax-driven deal. Our proposal to combine with Syngenta and create a new company is premised on better supporting farmers throughout the world with increased innovation and expanded global reach.”
