The OECD’s departing tax chief, who masterminded the most radical reforms to corporate taxation for almost a century, has warned that the US and Europe risk reviving trade wars and face hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue if they fail to implement last year’s global deal.
Some 136 countries have backed a two-pronged deal that aims to address public outrage over multinationals not paying their fair share of tax. But progress on both pillars of the reforms has stalled, despite OECD calculations that show governments could collect more than $150bn in additional taxes annually from the world’s largest corporates.
Pascal Saint-Amans, who was head of the tax department at the Paris-based organisation for the past decade, said in an interview with the Financial Times: “I see some serious risks of unilateral measures, and therefore trade sanctions, at a time when countries which are allies, in a difficult…
