The partnership between the South Centre, an intergovernmental think tank of developing countries, and the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) offer the opportunity to carry out in-depth studies on the priorities of the South Centre’s 55 Member States and that are high in the agenda of developing countries on the reform effort for a fairer global economy.

In that regard, the Geneva Graduate Institute, in collaboration with the South Centre, prepared a study titled “The Analysis of Imbalanced Tax Treaties of Developing Countries: Insights from Tax Treaties Explorer Database”. The topic was carefully selected given that the South Centre’s Member States have signed a large number of tax treaties over the years hoping to bring in foreign direct investment, and in exchange have agreed to restrict their taxing rights through these treaties. 

However, the distribution of taxing rights agreed to in numerous treaties between South Centre Member States and developed countries is grossly imbalanced, depriving developing countries of much-needed revenues.

For instance, as a result of the advancement in the use of technology and significant payments by developing countries for the use of intellectual property rights, a tax treaty policy that follows exclusive residence State taxation of royalties will generally constitute a restrictive tax treaty.

The event will therefore feature the launch of the study that analyses tax treaties of South Centre Member States by identifying their restrictive and imbalanced tax treaties with OECD countries, as well as identifying the specific provisions that make these treaties imbalanced. The analysis has been done for each of the 55 Member States of the South Centre. The report outlines key findings and implications with practical recommendations for South Centre Member States.