The Interface Of International Trade Law And Taxation

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 book is structured around three main topics: the rationale, the tax design and the legal framework of environmental border tax adjustments. This three-fold analysis gives an overview of the legal issues that should be considered before the adoption of environmental border taxes, including carbon tax adjustments. The critical approach to the arguments surrounding traditional and environmental border tax adjustments allows for detailed legal analysis going beyond the question of their compatibility with WTO law, while also reviewing the economic argument.

International trade law is the set of laws and agreements that govern commerce between countries. International trade laws create the rules that countries and businesses must follow to do business across borders. Lawyers who work in the field help create international agreements. International trade attorneys must work to ensure that their clients understand and comply with tax laws in all of the countries where they do business. They must also work on behalf of their clients to reduce or avoid repetitive taxation. Current WTO rules are codified in three agreements: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), covering international trade in goods; the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This book places international trade law within its broader context, providing comment and critique on a range of questions both related specifically to the discipline of international trade law itself and the outside face of international trade law and its intersection with states and other aspects of the global system. It examines the economic and institutional context of the world trading system, its substantive law (including regional trade regimes), and the settlement of disputes.

The phenomenal internationalization of taxation occurring in recent years has called for a second edition of this classic handbook. Even though a quarter of a century has passed, the farsighted first edition has remained in constant use worldwide and has even grown in importance. Now it has been thoroughly updated by the author, who has brought his piercing insight to bear on the current world of international tax law while retaining the book’s practical format, structure of primary materials, and detailed commentary. Emphasizing the need for an international consciousness in relation to issues of taxation, Professor Qureshi focuses extensively on the problems associated with fiscal jurisdiction, international constraints in domestic taxation, double taxation, and tax evasion and avoidance. In particular the following are covered: treaty law with specific reference to taxation; fiscal aspects of international monetary, investment, and trade law; enforcement of international tax claims; exchange of information; assistance in recovery of tax claims; mechanisms for the resolution of international tax disputes; base erosion and profit shifting in the framework of public international law; and contribution of international institutions to fiscal capacity development. Assimilating in one source the basic materials in public international law germane to taxation – including cases, texts of international agreements, discourse in secondary sources, and incisive commentary, all updated to the present – this new edition of the most authoritative and important book in its field will be of immeasurable value to tax practitioners worldwide, national taxation authorities, international institutions, and the international tax community more generally.

This book provides an excellent overview of the legal issues surrounding climate change mitigation and international trade law. It surveys key observed and potential challenges posed by responses to climate change in terms of international trade law. By examining the controversial issues seen in legal cases in which domestic climate change or renewable energy measures conflicted with international trade regimes, this volume promotes and broadens the understanding and debate of the issues. Beyond the recognized challenges, this book uncovers potential areas of conflict between climate change responses and international trade promotion by exploring previous cases and current efforts to prevent climate change. Furthermore, this volume sheds light on the future direction of international trade law and climate change responses, pointing out that the development of climate change or renewable energy laws and policies must also consider international trade regimes in order to ensure the smooth implementation of said laws and policies and guarantee that international trade laws do not restrict environmental policy space.

Peter Hongler combines a comprehensive overview of the technical content of the international tax law regime with an assessment of its crucial relationship to wider international law. Beginning with an assessment of legal principles and foundations, the book considers key general principles, treaty based regimes, and regional integration in tax matters. In the second half of the work Hongler places international tax law in the context of its wider relationships with human rights law, and trade and investment law. He concludes by considering major legal successes and failures and what might be done to address these.