Survival of the Richest

Global developments 2016
Although there was very limited participation of developing
countries in the BEPS decision-making process, these
same countries are now being pressured to sign up to the
new rules and guidelines, which have not been designed
in their interest. In February 2016, the OECD established a
so-called ‘Inclusive Framework’, which allows all countries
to join in the implementation of the BEPS outcome. 43 Despite
the OECD referring to this as including all countries ‘on an
equal footing’, it is important to note that this forum will deal
mainly with the monitoring and implementation of the BEPS
decisions that have already been agreed. The countries that
sign up to the Framework will be allowed to participate in
discussions about further additions to the BEPS decisions.
However, in order to join, they also need to sign up to follow
the almost 2,000 pages of decisions and guidelines already
adopted within the BEPS project. 44 Adding further pressure,
the EU member states are now discussing whether to
threaten countries that do not sign up to BEPS with both
blacklisting and, potentially, sanctions (see also below under
‘Blacklisting ‘non-cooperative jurisdictions’’). 45
This approach has been heavily criticised by civil society
organisations, which continue to call for a genuine
intergovernmental body on tax where all countries would
have an equal say in designing the rules. 46
The Inclusive Framework is not the only new international
initiative. Ahead of its annual spring meeting in April 2016,
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced plans for
a ‘Platform for Collaboration on Tax’. 47 This platform will
include the secretariats of the IMF, the World Bank, OECD and
the United Nations (UN). The idea is to increase informationsharing
and produce toolkits for the implementation of
standards for international tax matters. 48 However, this body
also fails to fulfil the demand of ensuring developing countries
get a seat at the table when international tax standards are
decided, for the simple reason that the platform members
are international institutions – not countries. In response to
the IMF’s announcement, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice
noted that the UN represents the broadest membership of
both developed and developing countries and said: ‘That the
UN has now been asked to participate in a technical platform
for select information sharing on international tax matters
only emphasizes the absurdity of how the UN has not been
empowered to convene all member states to discuss and
make decisions on these issues in full.’ 49
Meanwhile, developing countries and civil society continue
to push for truly inclusive global decision making on tax.
During a meeting of the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Nairobi in July 2016,
developing countries once again proposed recognition
of their right to participate on an equal footing, but the
proposal was once again rejected by developed countries. 50
Supporters of the #StopTheBleeding
campaign, Nairobi, Kenya
stopthebleedingafrica.org
However, developing countries are not taking no for an
answer. In September 2016, the President of Ecuador
relaunched the proposal to establish an intergovernmental
UN tax body, underlining that this will be a vital step in the
fight to end tax havens globally. The President stressed that:
‘This will not be an easy struggle. We are already seeing
much resistance. The boycott by a number of wealthy
countries of the tax justice agenda during last year’s UN
Finance for Development Conference in Addis Ababa was a
stark reminder of the opposition and shameful arguments
we will confront in pursuing this cause. But since then, the
clamor for real action has grown. Now is the time for a
historic ethical pact to finally deliver tax justice to the world.’ 51
Ecuador has been elected as the 2017 chair of the Group of 77
(G77) 52 – a coalition of more than 130 developing countries –
and underlined that this will be one of their major priorities. 53
Extract from the negotiating text at the UNCTAD 14
conference in Nairobi, Kenya, July 2016, where the
recognition of developing countries’ right to participate
on an equal footing was deleted. In the end, the entire
paragraph taken out of the text
14 • Survival of the Richest