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In response to the COVID-19 crisis, a number of tax administrations have already published domestic guidance on some of the transfer pricing implications of COVID-19. While this is an important first step in setting taxpayer expectations, facilitating co-operative compliance and delivering greater tax certainty, the two-sided nature of transfer pricing means that it is only by agreeing a common approach that tax administrations can enhance tax certainty. This Guidance clarifies and illustrates the practical application of the arm’s length principle as articulated in the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines to the unique fact patterns and specific challenges implied by the COVID-19 pandemic. Four priority issues were identified and are covered in the Guidance: (i) comparability analysis; (ii) losses and the allocation of COVID-19 specific costs; (iii) government assistance programmes; and (iv) advance pricing agreements (“APAs”). This Guidance was developed and approved by the 137 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS. While it is recognised that some Inclusive Framework members may also follow the United Nations Practical Manual on Transfer Pricing for Developing Countries (2017), this Guidance should be helpful in such circumstances where the UN Manual follows a similar analytical framework and allows for similar conclusions as the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines.

Finance ministries have been at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 crisis, alongside other actors such as health ministries. They delivered substantial successive fiscal packages under considerable time and operational pressure, as speed was key to the success and effectiveness of government action on the economic, social and sanitary fronts. This brief provides an overview of how OECD countries’ financial management and reporting systems have coped and adapted to the demands and pressures brought about by the crisis in four main areas: 1) Funding COVID-19 spending; 2) Allocating resources to emergency policies; 3) Delivering emergency spending; 4) Enabling transparency and accountability. Finally, it draws a set of preliminary lessons to be considered by finance ministries.

This note updates Trade facilitation and the COVID-19 pandemic from April 2020 with insights into the evolution of new border protocols and trade facilitation measures impacting traders since COVID-19 and exploring what more can be done to prepare for the next stages of the pandemic as uncertainty persists. It highlights the importance of transparency and availability of timely trade-related information in mapping bottlenecks and risks, as well as the importance of trade facilitation measures in supporting business recovery and resilience across different goods sectors. Finally, it provides some preliminary insights for trade facilitation with respect to the distribution of vaccines.

Recovery from the social and economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will require concerted policy action. As countries consider recovery packages, there are opportunities to prioritise green policy choices that help promote environmental objectives and speed up structural change towards the low-carbon transition, increasing society’s resilience to future shocks and reducing future risks. This policy brief focuses on practical ways in which countries can use green budgeting and tax policy tools to implement stimulus packages that support a green recovery, and the inter-linked role of both tax and spend measures in aligning stimulus programmes with decarbonisation objectives.

This brief discusses the existing obstacles in developing international clinical trials that are critical to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides information on relevant adaptations of regulatory requirements for clinical trials, intended to accelerate the processes, and highlights the need to harmonise further these regulations between national regulatory authorities. To this end, this brief describes the existing OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Clinical Trials issued in 2012 and how its implementation could greatly facilitate and streamline the registration and conduct of international clinical trials.

Embora as medidas excepcionais implementadas ou previstas em alguns países possam mostrar-se, finalmente, eficazes na limitação da propagação do vírus, algumas abordagens têm se mostrado controversas em termos de risco de violação àprivacidade e outros direitos fundamentais dos cidadãos, especialmente quando essas medidas carecem de transparência ou não são objeto de ampla consulta à população.

Muchos gobiernos están tomando medidas nunca antes vistas para detectar, rastrear y contener la propagación del nuevo coronavirus (COVID-19), al recurrir a las tecnologías digitales y a la analítica avanzada para recabar, procesar y compartir datos a fin de ofrecer primeras líneas de respuesta eficaces.

In early March 2020, the OECD’s Interim Economic Outlook highlighted that the coronavirus outbreak had already caused a sharp decline in economic growth in China, and subsequent outbreaks in other countries were eroding prospects for economic growth. Since that time, the increasing spread of the coronavirus across countries has prompted many governments to introduce unprecedented measures to contain the epidemic. While necessary to contain the virus, these measures have led to many businesses being shut down temporarily, widespread restrictions on travel and mobility, financial market turmoil, an erosion of confidence and heighted uncertainty. This approach suggests that the shutdowns could lead to sharp declines in the level of output in many economies, with consumers’ expenditure potentially dropping by around one-third. Changes of this magnitude would far outweigh the economic recession during the global financial crisis.

Digital transformation has widespread and complex effects across the economy and society. It impacts many policy domains and makes trade-offs between public policy objectives more difficult to navigate. The Going Digital Integrated Policy Framework helps governments and stakeholders to develop an integrated approach to policy making in the digital age and to shape policies for an inclusive digital future. This report outlines the framework’s seven interrelated policy dimensions: 1) access to communications infrastructures, services and data; 2) effective use of digital technologies and data; 3) digital and data-driven innovation; 4) good jobs for all; 5) social prosperity and inclusion; 6) trust in the digital age; and 7) market openness in digital business environments. The report also highlights transversal policy issues (e.g. skills, digital government, SMEs and data) that cut across several policy dimensions. Finally, this report provides guidance on putting the framework into practice.

This report synthesises the key findings and policy messages from recent OECD work on global value chains (GVCs) in agriculture and food. The food and agriculture sector is increasingly organised within GVC around a number of global hubs. Agro-food GVCs have broadened the gains from specialisation and trade through stronger sector and employment growth. Openness to trade, especially services trade, can positively influence domestic value added creation in agro-food GVCs. However, trade protection and distorting agricultural support policies can reduce the gains from GVC participation and impose costs along the value chain. Government policies need to focus on facilitating participation in GVCs and helping to manage any adjustments across the food and agriculture sectorKeywords: Agro-food, value added, employment, policy reform, trade.

This report showcases how triangular co-operation can contribute to achieving ‘green’ objectives (e.g. on climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, biodiversity, desertification, and local environmental issues). Data collected through an OECD survey on triangular co-operation (2015) and desk research uncovered 224 triangular projects targeting green objectives, involving 91 countries and international organisations, out of a total of 658 triangular co-operation projects for the period 2014-18. Given the available evidence (data, evaluations and interviews with project managers), the report shows that triangular activities can deliver green goals in innovative, flexible and cost-effective ways within and across regions – and thus could help accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and other international green agreements (e.g. the Paris Agreement). Nevertheless, there are several barriers that prevent further deployment of this modality, including lack of awareness on triangular co-operation among the different green communities, insufficient evidence on the potential of green triangular co-operation, and few dedicated vehicles that can pilot and scale-up successful initiatives. The report proposes a number of recommendations for policy makers to overcome these barriers.

This paper provides an initial assessment of the shipbuilding industry in the context of global value chains by presenting new descriptive evidence on value added generation and sourcing patterns of intermediate inputs for ship construction of major shipbuilding economies. The findings reveal that shipbuilding relies heavily on intermediate inputs as around 70-80% of the final output value of ship production is generated through supplier sectors. Concerning sourcing activity, China appears to be the most self-sufficient among the four jurisdictions studied, followed by Japan and the EU28, while Korea seems to be more globally integrated. The analysis also explores variations among the four economies in the cost structure of shipbuilding inputs, which might partly be explained by differences in the ship types produced.

This document provides learnings from 13 case studies on governance mechanisms of national and supranational science, technology and innovation initiatives. As countries strive to resolve societal challenges, “mission-oriented” approaches complement traditional ones centred on national competitiveness, specific industrial sectors or technologies. Governance settings contribute overall to a more inclusive, transparent and responsible STI system, in particular through a whole-of-government approach, the consultation of academia, the private sector and civil society, the implementation of strategies by professional agencies, and the increasingly common use of evaluation. Several critical dimensions facilitate the success of STI policies. They include a commitment at the highest level of government, strong public-private collaboration in R&D, continuous evaluation and improvement, a “mission-oriented” approach, coherence of policies and flexibility in setting priorities, as well as overall harmonisation and rationalisation of programmes in order to maximise efficiency and reduce duplication.