COMMENT With Donald Trump now as the president-elect and Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, a tax reform is looming in the United States.

It is expected that the tax reform will cause a shift in global trade, something which is of grave concern to countries trading with the US, such as Malaysia, but the impacts could be greater than expected, depending on how the reform is undertaken.

One main theme of Trump’s campaign is jobs and growth. To deliver his election promises, Trump is expected to kick off a major tax reform, once he is sworn in as president on Jan 20 next year, to spur economic growth and attract US companies to move production lines onshore.

There are currently two tax reform proposals on the table, one is by the Trump team and another is by the Republicans in the Congress. Although both call for massive tax cuts, they are different in many respects, particularly in regard to corporate tax.

Trump’s plan for tax reform is rather a conventional one. It is basically Reaganomics. It promises a cut to corporate tax from the existing 35 percent to 15 percent.