I’ve posted below the slides I just used for a presentation here at the European Economic and Social Council. The EESC has formed a study group to consider the question of “EU development partnerships and the challenge posed by international tax agreements.”
Interesting discussions included the evidence base for the effect of tax treaties on investment into developing countries. Here I think the key question is what provisions of tax treaties are relevant to investment flows, and in what circumstances, rather than simply whether tax treaties per se attract investment.
Tax certainty is the new buzzword, and it was interesting to think about how it applies here. On one hand, a treaty provides greater certainty because it commits its signatories to tax investors in a certain way as long as the treaty is in force. But that certainty relies on ongoing support for tax treaty norms. Developing countries feel unhappy with the content of the international tax norms on which bilateral treaties are based, as well as the institutions that develop those norms. (Here, for example, is a recent presentation by Eric Mensah from the Ghana Revenue Authority that makes these points). Countries such as Mongolia, Vietnam and Uganda are beginning to question the constraints imposed on their tax policy by treaties signed in the past. There is perhaps a trade-off between developed countries’ desire to defend the content of existing norms and the role of the OECD, and developing countries’ willingness to abide by those standards in the long term.
Martin Hearson 
Interesting.! I like it.