Treasury, Economy and Finance ministers and high-level officials from 16 of the region’s countries approved the instrument establishing governance of the Regional Tax Cooperation Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean, which is the main outcome of the First Latin American and Caribbean Summit for an Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable Global Tax Order, taking place in Cartagena, Colombia through tomorrow, July 28.
So indicates the joint declaration (“Cartagena de Indias Declaration”) signed today in the framework of the event, which drew government authorities, political leaders, representatives of international, regional and multilateral organizations as well as members of civil society.
The summit – organized by Colombia’s Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and promoted by the governments of that country, Brazil and Chile with support from the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) – seeks to create a permanent forum for tax coordination between Latin American countries that can become a space for discussing the tax matters affecting the region’s countries.
In the declaration, the signatory countries affirm their commitment to generating knowledge, sharing experiences, contributing to the forging of shared positions and non-binding concrete solutions that would guide ministerial decision-making in addressing the region’s tax policy challenges. Furthermore, they seek to build in a participatory way and through consensus a space for integrating Treasury, Economy and Finance ministers to foster dialogue with the aim of ensuring that international and regional tax policies be inclusive, equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable and favorable to growth, the reduction of inequalities and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In addition, they commit to contributing with analyses, exchanges and technical guidelines to member countries’ fulfillment of the SDGs, in accordance with international experiences and the needs of the region and of each country, and they welcome the voice and contribution of academia, civil society, the business sector and multilateral organizations in sharing their knowledge, contributing ideas and identifying unresolved problems and potential solutions on matters of taxation.
In the document, the countries support the new body’s pro tempore Presidency being held by Colombia for the next 12 months, and they thank ECLAC for serving as the platform’s Technical Secretariat.
“It is critical that fiscal policy be devised and designed in a way that makes the requirements of short-term stability compatible with those of long-term growth and well-being. The region needs a profound revision of its fiscal compacts, on the basis of frameworks of public finance sustainability but centered on a combination of increased permanent revenue and improved quality and allocation of spending. Both elements are essential for being able to move forward on transforming development models into more productive, inclusive and sustainable ones,” indicated ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, who actively participated in the debates of this First Latin American and Caribbean Summit for an Inclusive, Sustainable, and Equitable Global Tax Order.
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