Trade and Development Report 2019

News:United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) has released its Trade and Development Report 2019. 

Facts:

About the report:

• The report has recommended for the adoption of a unitary taxation system for Multinational Enterprises(MNEs).
• This approach is needed as the current international corporate taxation norms consider affiliates of MNEs as independent entities and treat taxable transactions between different entities of MNEs as unrelated.
• This unitary taxation system would simplify the global taxation system and is expected to increase tax revenues for all countries.
• The report also highlighted the fact that the profits of MNEs are generated collectively at the group level. 
• Hence,unitary taxation should be applied by combining it with a global minimum effective corporate tax rate on all MNE profits.

Additional information:

UNCTAD:

• UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964.
• It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and part of the UN Secretariat.
• It was formed specifically to handle the problems of developing countries dealing with trade, investment and development issues.
• The various other reports published by UNCTAD are (a) World Economic Situation and Prospects Report (b) Trade and Development Report (c)World Investment Report (d) The Least Developed Countries Report, (e) Information and Economy Report (f) Technology and Innovation Report and (g) Commodities and Development Report.