Administration of Customs Payments: International Standards for the Interaction of Tax and Customs Authorities

Outcome of the pesticides peer review meeting on general recurring issues in ecotoxicology

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is the least written about and least well understood of the global multilateral economic institutions. Paradoxically, leading commentators ceaselessly refer to the centrality of the OECD to contemporary global governance, yet rarely has the organization been the subject of sustained academic scrutiny. For instance, Joseph Nye (2002: 144) argued that the OECD, in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), provides ‘a framework of rules for the global economy’. Similarly, Held et al. (1999: 84) cite the OECD among the ‘key multilateral economic fora’ common to all ‘states in advanced capitalist societies’. Nevertheless, having identified the importance of the OECD, these and many other observers proceed to marginalize the role of the organization preferring instead to focus on the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Equally, as the other contributions to this volume testify, book-length accounts of the activities of the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank and other leading institutions such as the Group of 7/8 (G7/8), which now has an entire book series devoted to it, are commonplace. In contrast, apart from a smattering of texts authored by the OECD’s own staff (OECD 1971; Sullivan 1997) and a small literature examining the organization’s role in the global trading system (Blair 1993; Cohn 2002), the last single-authored book written in English by an outsider and focussing exclusively on the OECD’s role in global affairs was published nearly forty years ago (Aubrey 1967; Woodward 2007a). More specialized work detailing the history and evolution of transatlantic governance is largely devoid of references to the OECD. One contributor to Gardner and Stefanova’s collection The New Transatlantic Agenda (2001) asserts that ‘the “OECD world” is, first of all, a transatlantic world’ (May 2001: 185) but there is only one further reference to the organization in the volume. Pollack and Shaffer’s (2001) Transatlantic Governance in the Global Economy and Richard Cooper’s (1968) classic study of economic management among the Atlantic community, The Economics of Interdependence, provide greater coverage of the OECD and its predecessor the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) but again these references are sporadic and fragmented. A cursory survey of articles published in the last decade by what, according to the ISI Social Sciences Citation Index, are thetwenty highest impact international relations journals reveals a comparable pattern (see Table 3.1). In purely quantitative terms the OECD does not fair too badly. The WTO is clearly the frontrunner, being the subject of 211 articles during the period, but the OECD with thirty-four articles is only slightly behind the IMF (48) and is ahead of the World Bank (26) and the G7/8 (5). However, only 15 of these 34 articles contain substantive material about the organization, its work or its broader contribution to global governance. The remaining articles were using OECD countries as a basis for comparison. Finally, the OECD lacks the public profile associated with other international organizations. Anti-globalization protests have marred OECD gatherings in Paris (February 1998), Bologna (June 2000) and Naples (March 2001) but typically OECD meetings are low-key affairs passing off without the media comment, sabre rattling and general razzmatazz that accompany the IMF, WTO and the G8.

International initiatives to enhance tax compliance and reduce the extent and impact of illicit financial flows have now been ongoing for over two decades, led primarily by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum), the European Union (EU), the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Bank. Increasingly, the various forums, bodies, panels, and countries involved in developing policy responses to the issue of illicit financial flows are recognising that there are synergies between these regimes and initiatives that, if harnessed properly, can multiply the effectiveness of current individual approaches. For instance, while the stated purpose of the FATF Standards on transparency and beneficial ownership is to prevent the misuse of corporate vehicles for money laundering or terrorist financing, the implementation of these Standards supports efforts to prevent and detect other predicate offences such as tax crimes and corruption, while reinforcing jurisdictions’ capacity to meet their legal obligations arising from related international standards such as the UNCAC, the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, the OECD Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, and the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information. Common to many of these regimes and standards is the shared recognition that the identification of the ultimate beneficial owners of accounts and of corporations is crucial to detecting, tracking, and preventing illicit financial flows, by enabling authorities to more effectively and efficiently “follow the money”. The aim of this paper is to provide the necessary contextual information around beneficial ownership, and its place in the broader transparency agenda, in order to enhance understanding amongst stakeholders of what is meant by the concept and what its effective implementation requires. Part I sets out a broad overview of current and historical developments in the financial transparency agenda. Part II provides an outline of the relevant international frameworks that prescribe the collection, verification, and disclosure requirements for beneficial ownership information (being, primarily, the AML/CFT FATF Standards and the bilateral/multilateral mechanisms for exchange of information for tax purposes). Part III discusses the benefits of, and barriers to, effective collection, disclosure and exchange of beneficial ownership information, and outlines practical steps that can be taken to enable and/or reinforce verification systems. Part IV establishes an overview of recent international developments on the concept of beneficial ownership. It presents a factual description of the initiatives taken by the OECD, the Global Forum, the FATF, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, World Bank, UNODC, Transparency International and Tax Justice Networks. Part V seeks to provide some useful practical-oriented recommendations on short- to medium-term actions that could be taken in these types of capacity-constrained environments to improve transparency and enhance the effectiveness of current tools and practices for combatting illicit financial flows.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering was founded as a fact-finding committee with a one-year mandate to catalog states’ anti-money laundering (AML) laws. The secretariat is comprised of roughly 15 people, many of whom are seconded from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Its product is not a convention but a nonbinding, vaguely written list of “40 + 9 Recommendations.” Relying on such “soft law” tools, its mission has been to promote greater financial regulation over a period of two and a half decades in which a strong current has run toward deregulation. Yet, FATF’s efforts at regime building have worked. Nearly all states have made political commitments to meet FATF recommendations. The FATF’s mandate was recently expanded until 2020 and the list of activities the group addresses has expanded from illicit drug trafficking in the earliest days to any illicit financial activity today, including nuclear proliferation, corruption, transnational organized crime, and maritime piracy.

This first chapter is roughly divided into two halves. The first defines corruption and money laundering in separate sections explaining why each issue moved from the margins to the center of the international policy stage in the 1990s. Currently, corruption receives more attention than any other single factor in discussing economic development and political governance, whereas twenty years ago it was largely a nonissue. Four actors in particular are important in explaining this shift: the United States, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and Transparency International. More broadly, a growing conviction among economists that corruption lies behind many development failures, and well-publicized examples of spectacular grand corruption in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and elsewhere changed the climate of opinion among the general public and policymakers alike. Money laundering was first seen as a new way of putting pressure on the international illicit drug trade. Led by the United States, the G7 countries established the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which subsequently defined and diffused a standard package of anti-money laundering (AML) policies worldwide. In doing so, the FATF has enjoyed support from a constellation of other international institutions, ranging from the United Nations to specialized regional AML bodies.

In the current conditions of development of market mechanisms for regulating the domestic economy, the issue of the impact of negative factors is more relevant than ever. In addition to Russia's military aggression, the introduction of martial law, and a significant number of forced restrictions on the activities of individuals and legal entities, the negative impact is also exerted by factors related to corruption, illegal enrichment, raiding, concealment of income or part thereof, money laundering, terrorist financing, etc. This situation necessitates the development of measures to reduce corruption, as well as the establishment of ongoing cooperation with international organizations to combat corruption. The purpose of the article is to determine the directions of international cooperation in the field of preventing manifestations of corruption in Ukraine, to study the effectiveness of such cooperation as one of the directions for reducing the level of corruption and the shadow economy, taking into account national and international anti-corruption programs, international experience in combating the legalization of income, money laundering or concealment of profits. The theoretical and practical basis of the study was the research of domestic scholars in the field of international cooperation in the field of combating corruption, legalization of the economy, analytical reports and data of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, indicators and benefits of cooperation between international organizations. Strategically important countries for Ukraine in recent years have become: Latvia, Germany, Poland, Montenegro, Moldova, and Lithuania. The most active organizations in terms of cooperation are: Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FAFT); Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units; Council of Europe (Council of Europe Committee on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Measures (MONEYVAL)); European Union; United Nations; World Bank; NATO; Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); other international organizations in the field of financial monitoring. The most important areas of cooperation between domestic and international organizations in the field of combating corruption are: the creation of joint projects to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in Ukraine, the development of programs to combat money laundering and concealment of income, joint operations to expose terrorist financing schemes, the war in Ukraine, etc.

In this article Ejike Ekwueme and Professor Mahmood Bagheri examine the linkage between commercial corruption and money laundering, looking particularly at the adequacy of the responses in place to tackle the threat presented by money laundering. These include "soft laws" established through FATF (Financial Action Taskforce) and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and convention-based measures like UNCAC 2003 and ICC initiatives.

The research is devoted to the analysis of the role of the National Bank of Ukraine in ensuring the effectiveness of financial monitoring as a key element of ensuring the financial security of the state. The paper highlights the peculiarities of financial monitoring in Ukraine, identifies the main tasks and mechanisms for its implementation in the context of current economic challenges. The legal framework governing financial control in the country, including legislative initiatives and Ukraine's international obligations in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT), is considered. The role of state regulators, in particular the National Bank of Ukraine, in creating an effective system of supervision over financial transactions and ensuring an appropriate level of coordination between banking and non-banking institutions is investigated. Particular attention is paid to the adaptation of the national financial monitoring system to international standards and recommendations of such organisations as the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The author analyses real-life examples of violations in the field of financial monitoring, which demonstrate the existing gaps in regulation and indicate the need to improve regulatory policy. Potential areas for improving the financial control system are identified, including increasing the transparency of financial transactions, introducing the latest data analysis technologies, expanding the possibilities for cooperation between government agencies and financial institutions, and increasing liability for violations in this area. The paper formulates practical recommendations for further development of the financial monitoring system in Ukraine aimed at increasing its effectiveness in the context of growing financial threats and economic instability. The emphasis is placed on the need for an integrated approach to financial supervision that takes into account both national peculiarities and international experience in combating financial fraud and money laundering.

Bibliography

The article examines some aspects of the state civil service. State civil service in the tax authorities of the Russian Federation as a form of the state civil service has its own peculiarities, conditioned by the specifics of public relations that are formed in the tax sphere. The specifics of the state service of tax authorities is that it is a type of federal state civil service, but it applies features regulated by the Tax Code, regulatory legal acts of tax authorities, as well as the Russian Ministry of Finance. The authors found that for those who want to participate in the competition and enter the service in the tax authorities, the general requirements are few. Nevertheless, there is an acute shortage of qualified personnel in the tax authorities, therefore, in our opinion, priority should be given to the professionalism of civil servants. The terms and procedure for admission to the state civil service both in the Federal Tax Service of Russia and its territorial bodies are based on the general principles of legislation on the state civil service. The provisions on the state civil service in relation to the tax authorities receive their specificity in the regulatory acts of the tax authorities: federal and territorial. For each person wishing to enter the service in the tax authorities there are legislatively fixed qualification requirements, their own for each group and category of posts. The successful fulfillment by the tax authorities of their functional duties depends, first of all, on the qualified personnel of each body, and, as a result, the successful practical implementation of the concept of the personnel policy of the Federal Tax Service of Russia. We believe that the theoretical analysis and knowledge of the regulatory framework on this issue will help to identify subsequently the practical problems that arise in the process of implementing the relevant legal regulations, and to develop possible solutions to them.

PurposeThis paper aims to critically examine the digital transformation of anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) in light of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) San Jose principles, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) principles for artificial intelligence (AI) and the proposed European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence Act. The authors argue that AI tools can revolutionize AML/CFT and asset recovery, but there is a need to strike a balance between optimizing AML efficiency and safeguarding fundamental rights.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on reports, legislation, legal scholarships and other open-source data on the digital transformation of AML/CFT, particularly the deployment of AI in this context.FindingsA new regulatory framework with robust safeguards is necessary to mitigate the risks associated with the use of new technologies in the AML context.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to examine the use of AI in the AML/CFT context in light of the FATF San Jose principles, the OECD AI principles and the proposed EU AI Act.

Alþjóðastofnanir á borð við Efnahags- og framfarastofnunina (OECD), Sameinuðu þjóðirnar (SÞ), Alþjóðagjaldeyrissjóðinn (AGS) og Alþjóðabankann eru þekktar fyrir að standa að baki útbreiðslu hugmynda, gilda og stefnumála um heim allan. Á 10. áratugnum jókst áhugi fræðimanna á viðfangsefni sem kallað er hér stefnuyfirfærsla (e. policy transfer). Tilraunir fræðimanna fólust m.a. í því að setja ramma utan um nálgunina og skýra af hverju yfirfærsla á sér stað, við hvaða aðstæður, á hvaða stigi o.s.frv. Fátt hefur verið meira rannsakað innan stjórnsýslufræðanna undanfarna áratugi erlendis en viðfangsefnið hefur lítið borið á góma hér á landi. Þrátt fyrir mikinn áhuga á viðfangsefninu alþjóðlega hefur nálgunin verið gagnrýnd þar sem hún er m.a. talin vera of lýsandi og kenningarlega veik. Hafa ekki embættismenn og stjórnmálamenn stolið hugmyndum frá hvor öðrum í aldir? Í ár verður Efnahags- og framfarastofnunin (OECD) 60 ára. Ísland er eitt af stofnaðildarríkjunum og því kominn tími til að rýna þetta langa samstarf sem íslensk stjórnsýsla hefur átt við OECD. Tilgangur þessarar greinar er að fjalla um starfsemi OECD og meta áhrif hennar á íslenska stefnumótun. Í fyrsta hluta greinarinnar er annars vegar fjallað um forvera OECD sem var Efnahagssamvinnustofnun Evrópu (OEEC) og hvernig hún lagði grunninn að því hvernig OECD starfar í dag. Hins vegar er farið ítarlega yfir hlutverk og skipulag OECD og þær áskoranir sem stofnunin hefur staðið frammi fyrir á undanförnum áratugum. Í öðrum hluta er aðferðin stefnuyfirfærsla skoðuð nánar. Aðferðin er skilgreind auk þess sem fjallað er um helstu leikendur. Tilraun er gerð til að ramma inn helstu afbrigði stefnuyfirfærslna og rætt er um sjálfviljuga og þvingaða yfirfærslu. Að lokum er fjallað um þátttöku Íslands á vettvangi OECD. Til að meta að hvaða leyti íslensk stjórnvöld nýta sér afurðir OECD við stefnumótun hér á landi er stuðst við gögn úr árangurskönnunum stofnunarinnar.

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar o fenômeno da corrupção e o crime de lavagem de dinheiro e a forma como vem sendo abordada essa temática no âmbito da Convenção sobre o Combate da Corrupção de Funcionários Públicos Estrangeiros em Transações Comerciais Internacionais da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE) e à formulação de políticas públicas para o Combate a Corrupção e a Lavagem de Dinheiro, por parte do Estado Brasileiro. A Lavagem de Dinheiro é uma das espécies de práticas corruptivas, de tal modo que esse tipo de ilícito compromete a efetivação dos direitos fundamentais, dos direitos sociais, do direito penal econômico, o Estado Democrático de Direito afetando, de forma direta, as políticas públicas tributárias em razão do cometimento de ilegalidades e delitos ligados às questões de ordem econômica, tais como, o suborno, fraudes, sonegação fiscal, propina, lavagem de dinheiro, tráfico de drogas, armas, ligados de maneira indireta, ao crime organizado. Considerando que o artigo é de natureza bibliográfica, será utilizado quanto ao método de abordagem a ser adotado no seu desenvolvimento o dedutivo, tendo pressuposto argumentos gerais (premissa maior) para argumentos particulares (premissa menor); enquanto o procedimento será analítico. Palavras chaves: Políticas Públicas Tributárias, Lavagem de Dinheiro, Corrupção de Funcionários Públicos Estrangeiros, ordem econômica, ilegalidades. MONEY LAUNDERING CRIME UNDER THE CONVENTION ON THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION OF FOREIGN public employee in the business operations of the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) This article aims to analyze the phenomenon of corruption and money laundering and how it is addressing this issue under the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) and the formulation of public policies for the Fight against Corruption and Money Laundering, by the Brazilian government. Money laundering is a kind of corrupt practices, so this type of crime committed with the observance of fundamental rights, social rights, economic criminal law, the democratic rule of law affecting directly the tax public policy because the commission of unlawful acts and crimes related to financial issues such as bribery, fraud, tax evasion, bribery, money laundering, drug trafficking, arms linked indirectly to the crime organizado.Considerando that the article is a bibliographic character , will be used as a method of approach is adopted in its deductive development, with arguments general assumption (major premise) for particular arguments (minor premise); while the procedure is analytic.

Chronic oral lethal and sub‐lethal toxicities of different binary mixtures of pesticides and contaminants in bees (Apis mellifera, Osmia bicornis and Bombus terrestris)

The impact of international financial monitoring standards on offshore companies' regulation has become a key issue in global economic governance. Offshore jurisdictions have long served as financial centers for multinational corporations, private individuals, and investment funds seeking tax efficiency and asset protection. However, concerns about tax evasion, money laundering, and financial secrecy have led to increased regulatory oversight. International organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the European Union (EU), and the Group of Twenty (G20) have introduced strict financial monitoring standards to enhance transparency and combat financial crimes. The relevance of this study lies in the growing pressure on offshore jurisdictions to align with global compliance frameworks, which has significantly altered their regulatory landscape. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the impact of international financial monitoring standards on the regulation of offshore companies by examining key regulatory initiatives, legislative changes in popular offshore jurisdictions, and their consequences for international businesses and investors. The results indicate that international financial monitoring standards have led to significant regulatory reforms in offshore jurisdictions, including introducing beneficial ownership registries, economic substance laws, and stricter reporting obligations. These measures have increased transparency and raised compliance costs for companies operating in offshore centers. Strengthened monitoring discourages illicit financial activities and improves global tax cooperation but simultaneously creates operational challenges for multinational corporations relying on offshore structures for tax optimization. The conclusions suggest that international financial monitoring standards will continue shaping offshore jurisdictions' regulatory environment, reinforcing transparency and accountability. While these measures enhance the legitimacy of offshore jurisdictions, they also present challenges for businesses striving to meet constantly evolving compliance requirements. Offshore financial centers must balance maintaining competitiveness and adhering to international regulatory obligations.