Developing Nations Told To Wind Up Tax Schemes

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

01 November 2012

The World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures has granted a final extension to the transitional period - until the end of 2013 - for the removal of tax-based export subsidy programmes by 19 developing countries.

These programmes mainly consist of free trade zones and tax incentives and the transition period will mainly benefit the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Jordan, Mauritius, Panama, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay.

In 2007, the WTO General Council adopted a decision on procedures for the extension of the transition period for the elimination of export subsidy programmes for these developing countries. The latest decision grants a final extension until the end of 2013, with a final phase out period of two years, requiring that the territories fully revoke the trade measures no later than December 31, 2015.

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