UN to vote on international tax proposal
Nov. 22, 2023
The United Nations General Assembly will vote today on giving the United Nations greater say over international taxation. The proposal put forward by the UNGA’s Africa group would created a new UN tax convention. But the move is expected to fail, in light of opposition from the U.S. and other wealthy nations. The EU and UK have been accused of blocking the process during intense negotiations over the past month, reports the Guardian.
London, Brussels and Washington are expected to vote against the move, citing existing arrangements to establish international tax rules by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
But “almost a decade of multilateral negotiations on a global tax treaty at the OECD has yielded insufficient progress,” write economists Jayati Ghosh, José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph Stiglitz in Project Syndicate.
“A vote at the United Nations will decide whether the future of global decision-making on taxation will emerge from the negotiation of a genuinely inclusive framework convention, or if a group of rich countries will successfully insist on maintaining the current ineffective and exclusionary arrangements.”
The vote puts three key issues on the table, according to Eurodad: “Firstly, whether all countries have the right to participate on an equal footing when global tax standards are being set. Secondly, whether international tax standards should be linked to other key social and environmental challenges, including the fight against climate change. And thirdly, whether governments should take additional measures to combat international tax dodging by negotiating a new UN Convention on Tax.”
Deadly rains in DR related to climate change — Abinader
At least 25 people were killed over the weekend in the Dominican Republic after heavy rains that also displaced over 13,000 people after torrential rains flooded homes, caused power outages and damaged bridges and parts of roads. (CNN and Reuters)
In his response, President Luis Abinader insisted that climate change must be taken seriously. “Those who do not believe in climate change, start believing,” said Abinader, who spoke of “extensive and substantial” damages. (Al Jazeera)
Officials in neighboring Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, said four people died and another two are missing. Dozens of people remained in shelters after the storm flooded hundreds of homes and cut off several communities, reports the Associated Press.
Migration
The U.S. issued visa restrictions against against individuals running charter flights into Nicaragua from Cuba and Haiti. Part of a crackdown on those facilitating an unprecedented wave of Cuban and Haitian migrants using the Central American country as a springboard to the United States, reports the Miami Herald.
Regional Relations
The U.S. military “is increasingly concerned that China’s growing network of facilities in Latin America and Antarctica for its civilian space and satellite programs has defense capabilities,” reports the Washington Post. “U.S. officials say the ground stations … have the potential to expand Beijing’s global military surveillance network in the southern hemisphere and areas close to the United States.”
“Fentanyl seizures along the US-Mexico border have hit record highs, suggesting that, despite a supposed ban on production of the deadly synthetic opioid in parts of Mexico, a multitude of criminal groups are keeping production apace,” reports InSight Crime.
Argentina
“Anti-woke libertarian Javier Milei’s landslide win in Argentina’s presidential election poses not only a worrying question for my country’s fragile 40-year-old democracy, but could also embolden other extreme libertarians in the US and Europe in their own anti-woke wars,” writes Uki Goñi in the Guardian.
Regional
Fishing, agriculture and livestock farming are all suffering a prolonged in the Titicaca region, reports the Guardian. “The waters of South America’s largest freshwater lake have severely receded leaving the Indigenous people around its shores struggling to maintain their livelihoods.”