Do Bilateral Tax Treaties Distort, Rather than Support, International Trade?

Abstract

For more than a century, countries around the world have relied on a network of bilateral tax treaties to facilitate trade and provide stability for cross-border investments. But despite the widespread use of so-called “model” treaties such as the OECD Model, countries often use the process of negotiating tax treaties to achieve other, more parochial, interests. Leonard Wagenaar examines how these negotiations produce results that distort international trade, and posits that there may be another way to craft tax treaties that avoids or minimizes these distortions.