NEW global tax rules are being negotiated right now at the UN, covering issues such as cross-border tax abuse, illicit financial flows, and how multinational and digital companies are taxed.
Here’s my full intervention on why Article 12 on capacity building is essential, so all countries can negotiate as equals:
𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝟏𝟐: 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
Distinguished delegates, colleagues, and friends,
Before we turn to legal text, look around this meeting room.
What we see is the distribution of power.
Some delegations arrive with teams of lawyers, tax experts, and seasoned negotiators.
Others are absent not because they lack knowledge or commitment, but because they lack the resources simply to be here.
Those empty chairs matter. They are not accidental. They reflect a system that privileges power and excludes those without it.
And we know the consequence: if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.
This is why Article 12 is not a technical provision. It is a political one.
At its core, Article 12 asks who gets to participate meaningfully in shaping global tax rules.
For decades, the global tax system has worked well for wealthy states and multinational corporations.
Capital moves freely, profits are protected, while many countries face eroded tax bases, underfunded public services, and widening inequality.
This is not accidental. These rules were written in spaces where many countries were never fully present.
Today, global tax norms remain dominated by the OECD and powerful economies. Much of the Global South is expected to implement frameworks it had little role in designing.
Agenda-setting is concentrated, and policy space is constrained.
Article 12 exists because this imbalance cannot be solved by compliance alone.
But capacity building must be understood correctly.
It is not charity.
It is not top-down assistance.
And it is not a substitute for inclusion.
Capacity building must enable countries to participate fully and independently by resourcing attendance, expertise, analysis, and confident negotiation.
This is a matter of reparative justice as the Global South is still treated as a recipient of expertise, not a co-author of solutions.
If Article 12 is serious, it must break from this model through a UN-administered, independently governed, demand-driven funding mechanism that builds long-term capacity.
Capacity building cannot be an add-on. It must be the foundation of this Convention.
Level the playing field, and fairness becomes possible.
Fail to do so, and inequality will simply be rewritten into new rules. Thank you. – February 8, 2026
Charles Santiago is former Klang MP