UN member states launched negotiations Monday on a global tax accord seeking to tackle in particular evasion by wealthy individuals and businesses, but the United States promptly quit the talks.
"Our mandate is clear, we must craft a framework convention that redefines fairness, transparency, equity in the international tax system," said Egyptian official Ramy Youssef, chair of the United Nations negotiating committee that is set to run until 2027.
"This is not merely a technical exercise. It's a moral imperative," he said, denouncing billions of dollars "lost annually to profit shifting, harmful tax competition and illicit financial flows" that could be going toward global development goals.
Currently, international tax issues are largely decided by wealthy member countries of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Developing nations, which are also pushing for a larger overhaul of international financial systems, have criticized their exclusion from the decision making.
Under pressure from African countries, the UN General Assembly in 2023 moved to proceed toward a new framework tax convention.
After a year of discussions, the UN in late 2024 adopted formal guiding principles for the future accord, though several nations, including the United States under then-president Joe Biden, voted against the so-called "terms of reference."
Among the principles outlined were the "equitable taxation of multinational enterprises" and "addressing tax evasion and avoidance by high-net worth individuals."
According to the NGO Tax Justice Network, governments lose some $492 billion in revenue every year due to tax havens.
Almost half (43 percent) of the losses, according to the NGO, are made possible by the tax policies of eight countries -- Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Britain and the United States -- which all voted against the terms of reference.
That dissent quickly comes into play at the inaugural negotiating sessions this week, as the committee first decides whether its proceedings will operate via majority vote or consensus -- the latter of which would give each member de facto veto-power.
The EU's representative argued Monday in favor of consensus, saying otherwise its 27 members might not participate in the future accord.
But Ryad Salmani, of the French NGO CCFD-Terre Solidaire, told AFP "it would be heresy to give Donald Trump's United States the power... to block the whole process."
The United States meanwhile announced its withdrawal from the negotiating process, with its representative saying the goals of the accord are "inconsistent with US priorities" and would "unacceptably hamper nations' ability to enact tax policies that serve the interests of their citizens, businesses and workers."