This paper examines the extent to which World Trade Organization (WTO) rules impinge on policymakers’ freedom to formulate tax policies. It provides an overview of both the economic rationale for WTO rules concerning taxation and the provisions of the main WTO agreements concerning border taxes and internal taxes (direct as well as indirect). It also points out some tax anomalies and inconsistencies in these rules, and how the rules have evolved as a consequence of the interpretation of the WTO agreements by its Dispute Settlement Body and the latter’s rulings in connection with several disputes over taxes affecting trade. As WTO Members will undoubtedly want to avoid having their tax policies successfully challenged in the WTO, the paper provides some guidance concerning the design of tax policy.
This book explores the ill-defined and oft-underestimated relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and taxation. By adopting a two-pronged approach, the relationship is examined in terms of the extent to which the WTO legal framework exerts influence upon domestic tax law and international tax policy, and whether it is appropriate for the WTO to play a regulatory role in the field of taxation. The book begins with an examination of the historical development of international trade law and international tax law, and demonstrates that these two separate areas of law are closely linked in terms of their underlying principles and historical evolution. The work then goes on to offer a doctrinal analysis of the tax content found in the WTO legal texts and highlights ambiguities therein.
WTO Law and Direct Taxation are linked in numerous ways. The WTO Agreements, thereof especially the GATT and GATS Agreements, contain several explicit provisions on the subject of direct taxes or even on its delimitation from Tax Treaty Law. To some extent, the scope of application of WTO Law has been broadened by case law to comprise also direct taxes. This entails overlappings particularly with regard to the law of subsidies, prohibitions of discrimination, and most-favoured-nation obligations. This book highlights increasingly relevant interdependencies between WTO Law and Direct Taxation from the viewpoint of 21 States. Special emphasis is placed on the conformity of national taxes on profits with WTO Law as well as on specifics of interpretation in several Member States. 21 National Reports from nearly all EU countries as well as Colombia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway and the USA dealt with this topic and were compiled and published in this volume. Additionally, a General Report prepared by Servatius van Thiel summarises the results of the National Reports. Moreover, experts in this field joining the Conference among them Reuven Avi-Yonah, Michael Lennard and Raymond Luja have volunteered contributions dealing with specific problems of WTO and Direct Taxation.
The publication contains an explanation of Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment and some of the key issues that arise in its negotiation, particularly the scope and application of MFN treatment to the liberalization and protection of foreign investors in recent treaty practice. The paper provides policy options as regards the traditional application of MFN treatment and identifies reactions by States to the unexpected broad use of MFN treatment, and provides several drafting options, such as specifying or narrowing down the scope of application of MFN treatment to certain types of activities, clarifying the nature of "treatment" under the IIA, clarifying the comparison that an arbitral tribunal needs to undertake as well as a qualification of the comparison "in like circumstances" or excluding its use in investor-State cases.
Non-discrimination is a central obligation under both tax treaty and trade law. However, in seeking to strike a balance between national and international interests, its application differs in the two areas of practice. This deeply researched and authoritative work, which explains the policy issues and how non-discrimination analysis works, provides a comprehensive review of non-discrimination rules in WTO and tax treaty law, combining a critical commentary on case law with proposals for an innovative concept for solving cases of discrimination in tax treaty law. Among the practical issues affecting non-discrimination examined in detail are the following: implications that can be drawn from the concepts of non-discrimination under WTO law and Article 24 of the OECD Model; direct and indirect discrimination and analysis of comparability in WTO law and tax treaty law; the MFN and NT rules under the GATT and GATS; the meaning of ‘likeness’ and ‘less favourable treatment’; claiming non-discriminatory tax treatment before tax administrations and courts under a tax treaty; justification of measures against harmful tax competition, low taxation and hybrid mismatch arrangements; thin capitalisation rules, progressive tax rates, foreign losses, group taxation and relief from juridical and economic double taxation under Article 24 of the OECD Model; and integrating a justification defence into any stage of a non-discrimination analysis. The author establishes to what extent formal, substantive and subjective approaches may be applied in a non-discrimination analysis, providing the reasons for the approaches taken. A two-step comparability procedure is applied to selected cases of potential tax discrimination, demonstrating how policy arguments can be addressed under Article 24 of the OECD Model. Drawing on over a half-century of case law in both areas of practice, this comprehensive study of the non-discrimination rules under WTO law and international tax law will be invaluable in systematically solving cases of tax discrimination under Article 24 of the OECD Model and putting forward arguments at any stage of a WTO analysis. Policymakers will benefit from the author’s clear explanation of how national law should comply with international obligations. Also, taxpayers’ advisers will proceed confidently in claims of tax treaty discrimination, and academics will discover an incomparable overview and analysis of anti-discrimination rules in international trade law and double taxation conventions.
The History and Future of the World Trade Organization is a comprehensive account of the economic, political and legal issues surrounding the creation of the WTO and its evolution. Fully illustrated with colour and black-and-white photos dating back to the early days of trade negotiations, the publication reviews the WTO's achievements as well as the challenges faced by the organisation, and identifies the key questions that WTO members need to address in the future. The book describes the intellectual roots of the trading system, membership of the WTO and the growth of the Geneva trade community, trade negotiations and the development of coalitions among the membership, and the WTO's relations with other international organisations and civil society. Also covered are the organisation's robust dispute settlement rules, the launch and evolution of the Doha Round, the rise of regional trade agreements, and the leadership and management of the WTO.
The editors have succeeded in bringing together an excellent mix of leading scholars and practitioners. No book on the WTO has had this wide a scope before or covered the legal framework, economic and political issues, current and would-be countries and a outlook to the future like these three volumes do. 3000 pages, 80 chapters in 3 volumes cover a very interdiscplinary field that touches upon law, economics and politics.
This handbook provides a holistic understanding of what the World Trade Organization does, how it goes about fulfilling its tasks, its achievements and problems, and how it might contend with some critical challenges.
ø Policy makers will benefit from the expert knowledge and policy lessons presented in this book, and development economists and researchers will profit from its critical examination of the world trading system. Undergraduate and postgraduate studen
