More Trade News in Brief Week 6 (8 – 14 February 2016)

EU, Andorra Sign AEOI Agreement

The European Union (EU) and Andorra have signed a deal to automatically exchange tax information.

See more here.

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FTA Talks – China & GCC

FTA talks between China and the GCC – comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – originally began in 2004 but faltered in 2009. They resumed the talks this month and they are seeking to complete them by the end of 2016.

See more following the link.

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Canada, Taiwan Sign Double Tax Treaty

Canada and Taiwan have signed a double tax agreement (DTA) that will limit the withholding tax rates on income from dividends, interest, and royalties, and provide for the exchange of tax information.

Read more here.

 

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More Trade News in Brief Week 37 (7 – 13 September 2015)

New DTA Protocols

Switzerland has signed protocols to its double taxation agreements (DTAs) with Norway and Albania.

See more following the link.

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EFTA and Georgia Start FTA Talks

The member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Georgia held a first round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement (FTA).

Check for more here.

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New Zealand Seeks Signature of Gulf FTA

New Zealand is looking for a free trade agreement with the Gulf States.

Check for more here.

More Trade News in Brief Week 26 (22 – 28 June 2015)

* UNCTAD – World Investment Report 2015

The World Investment Report focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide.

Check World Investment Report 2015 – Reforming International Investment Governance.

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* New WCO Guide to Customs Valuation and Transfer Pricing

The WCO launched a major new guide on the topic of Customs valuation and transfer pricing.

The guide is available to download via this link.

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* ICC Launches New Tool to Promote Business Sustainability

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) launched the 3^rd and radical update of its respected Business Charter for Sustainable Development.

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* OECD – Government at a Glance 2015

Monday, 6 July, the OECD will publish Government at a Glance 2015.

The biannual report presents more than 50 indicators to compare governments’ performance in everything from public finances (including government spending per person), cuts to staffing and pay in central government and the level of private asset disclosure by government officials to access to and satisfaction with the healthcare, education and the justice systems.

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* The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2015-2024

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2015-2024 will be published on Wednesday 1 July.

The report analyses agriculture production, discusses how global markets are reacting to price volatility in both food and commodity markets and looks at farm sector trends for the coming decade.

More Trade News in Brief Week 21 (18 – 24 May 2015)

World Employment and Social Outlook 2015

The International Labour Organization (ILO) today warned of widespread insecurity in the global employment market, saying that some 75 per cent of all workers are employed on temporary or short-term contracts in informal jobs often without any contract.

 

 

 

 

 

Check here for more.

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UNCTAD – Global Investment Trends Monitor

Hong Kong (China) and China were the second and the third largest investors in the world, after the United States which remains the largest single source of outward foreign direct investment (FDI).

Countries in developing Asia have, for the first time, collectively invested more money abroad than countries in the North American and European regions.

Download:

Global Investment Trends Monitor

Read more folowing the link.

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FAO Predicts World Food Import Bill to Fall to Five-Year Low

FAO’s first forecast for global cereal production in 2015 amounts to 2.509 billion tonnes, a bit down from last year’s record but nearly 5 percent above the average of the past five years.

Several years of solid harvests and stockpiling mean most basic food commodities are in surplus.

Check here for more.

More Trade News in Brief Week 12 (16 – 22 March 2015)

* Switzerland, EU Ink New Savings Tax Pact

Switzerland and the European Union (EU) have initialled an agreement on the automatic exchange of tax information (AEOI). Account data will be collected from 2017, with the first exchange scheduled for 2018.

See more clicking here.

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* EU: Combatting Corporate Tax Avoidance

The European Commission presented a package of tax transparency measures as part of its ambitious agenda to tackle corporate tax avoidance and harmful tax competition in the EU. A key element of this Tax Transparency Package is a proposal to introduce the automatic exchange of information between Member States on their tax rulings

Read more here.

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* China and US Telecoms Giants Lead Global Patent Activity in 2014

According to the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) annual review of international patent filings, a leading Chinese telecoms giant overtook a Japanese firm as the largest applicant last year, and China and the US together accounted for 87 per cent of the total growth in filings under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Under that system, some 215,000 applications were filed in 2014, a 4.5 per cent increase over the previous year, WIPO said in a news release.

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* WTO: Assistance in Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health

Five agencies and their partners operating a programme to help developing countries meet international standards on food safety and animal and plant health have approved plans for 2015–2019 designed to further strengthen safe trade.

The decision will allow the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) to continue to provide assistance to developing countries,

The STDF was set up in 2004 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO), and is run by the five partners together with donor countries and representatives of developing countries.

Check here and here for more.

 

More Trade News in Brief Week 51 (15 – 21 Dicember 2014)

* US and Cuba to Normalize Relations

The leaders of the United States and Cuba agreed to restore full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Check here for more.

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* Russia to Launch Alternative to SWIFT Bank Transaction System

Russia plans to launch its own international inter-bank system by May 2015. The national payment system department of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will be in charge of the new project.

Find more here.

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 * The 2014 edition of the World Intellectual Property Indicators

WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators 2014 provides a wide range of indicators covering the following areas of intellectual property: patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, microorganisms and plant variety protection.

It draws on data from national and regional IP offices, WIPO and the World Bank.

Download the full report.

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* World Economic Situation and Prospects 2015 (WESP) Report

The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2015 (WESP) report, which was launched today, estimates growth in 2015 of 3.1 per cent and in 2016 of 3.3 per cent.

Read more about it here.

 

OECD Releases First BEPS Recommendations

 

The OECD released its first recommendations for a co-ordinated international approach to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises.

 

The recommendations, under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, are designed to create a single set of international tax rules to end the erosion of tax bases and the artificial shifting of profits to jurisdictions to avoid paying tax.

 

The first 7 elements of the Action Plan released today focus on helping countries to:

• ensure the coherence of corporate income taxation at the international level, through new model tax and treaty provisions to neutralise hybrid mismatch arrangements (Action 2);
• realign taxation and relevant substance to restore the intended benefits of international standards and to prevent the abuse of tax treaties (Action 6);
• assure that transfer pricing outcomes are in line with value creation, through actions to address transfer pricing issues in the key area of intangibles (Action 8);
• improve transparency for tax administrations and increase certainty and predictability for taxpayers through improved transfer pricing documentation and a template for country-by-country reporting (Action 13);
• address the challenges of the digital economy (Action 1);
• facilitate swift implementation of the BEPS actions through a report on the feasibility of developing a multilateral instrument to amend bilateral tax treaties (Action 15); and
• counter harmful tax practices (Action 5).

 Please find more here.

News from ICC

 

* Revised ICC Statement Advises Against Exit Taxes Regimes

 

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has issued a revised policy statement acknowledging recent developments in the international taxation landscape.

 

More about ‘Exit taxes: Serious obstacles for international business restructurings and movements of capital’ here.

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* New Global Innovation Index

 

ICC launched the 7th edition Global Innovation Index 2014 (GII).

 

New Global Innovation Index recognizes innovation as a driver of economic growth, read more here.

 

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* Guide on Effective Management of Arbitration

 

The ICC guide “Effective Management of Arbitration: A Guide for In-House Counsel and Other Party Representatives” provides a practical toolkit for in-house counsel all around the world.

 

Check here for more.

More Trade News in Brief Week 31 (28 July – 3 August 2014)

 

* OECD – Global Standard for Automatic Exchange of Information

 

The OECD released the full version of a new global standard for the exchange of information between jurisdictions.

 

Check the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters.

 

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* New WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility

 

A new WTO initiative will help developing countries and least-developed countries reap the benefits of the WTO’s new Trade Facilitation Agreement.

 

Find more about here.

 

News from OECD

 

* OECD – Climate Deal for 2015

 

All the OECD’s member countries confirmed their desire to work towards a deal on combating climate change.

 

Full OECD Ministerial Statement on Climate Change here.

 

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* OECD – Single Global Tax Exchange Standard

 

The OECD’s 34 member countries endorsed the implementation of a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information.

 

Read the Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters.