Senator Garth Wilkin has this week been elected Vice President of the Bureau for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (INC-Tax), affirming the Federation’s leadership in shaping international tax norms. His role ensures that the Federation’s interests remain central in negotiations addressing financial security, economic mobility and sustainable development.
The INC-Tax is tasked with drafting the Convention and developing two early protocols: one on taxing income from cross-border services in a digital, globalised economy; the other on preventing and resolving international tax disputes. St. Kitts and Nevis’s leadership highlights its commitment to ensuring that small states are heard in he global tax architecture.
Delivering the CARICOM Statement, Wilkin emphasised that “the current international tax architecture presents significant barriers to CARICOM member states in their pursuit of sustainable development, particularly in the taxation of cross-border services and the resolution of tax disputes.” He noted that many CARICOM states rely on gross-basis withholding taxes for taxing non-resident services due to limited administrative capacity, a method often hampered by restrictive bilateral tax treaties. These constraints exacerbate resource strains, he said, particularly concerning unfair transfer pricing models favouring developed economies.
Wilkin stated, “This is why CARICOM believes the Framework Convention we craft must be anchored in the principle that efforts in international tax cooperation should be universal in approach and scope and should fully take into account the different needs and capacities of all countries as stated in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.” He asserted that the Convention must offer practical solutions to CARICOM’s revenue mobilisation challenges while respecting each nation’s sovereign tax design and enabling progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Prime Minister, Hon. Dr Terrance Drew, celebrated his nation’s role, noting that “global economic uncertainty and unpredictability persist—Saint Kitts and Nevis must be at the table of key debates and decisions or else we find ourselves with rules not of our own making.” He emphasised that tax policy is deeply personal and must safeguard Kittitians and Nevisians from international volatility.
Supporting Wilkin were Ambassador Mutryce Williams, Permanent Representative to the UN, and Eustace T. Wallace, Minister Counsellor and 2nd Committee (Economic and Financial Affairs) Lead. Crown Counsel II, Liska Hutchinson-Rhyner, will continue the Federation’s representation during the second week of the INC-Tax’s First Working Session.
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