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Cet article examine l'impact de la libéralisation commerciale multilatérale (et non de la libéralisation commerciale nationale, largement explorée dans la littérature) sur l'ampleur de la diversification des recettes fiscales. Cette dernière est approximée par le ratio des recettes fiscales commerciales sur le ratio des recettes fiscales non-commerciales. L'analyse utilise principalement l'estimateur des effets fixes, sur un panel déséquilibré de 145 pays, couvrant la période 1995-2015. Les résultats montrent que la libéralisation commerciale multilatérale promeut la diversification des recettes fiscales, c'est-à-dire, qu'elle réduit le ratio des recettes fiscales commerciales aux recettes fiscales non-commerciales. En outre, les pays les moins avancés bénéficient plus que les pays relativement plus avancés de cet impact positif de la libéralisation commerciale multilatérale sur l'ampleur de la diversification des recettes fiscales. Par ailleurs, les pays fortement dépendant du secteur agricole enregistrent un effet plus important de la libéralisation commerciale multilatérale sur la diversification des recettes fiscales que les pays dont les économies sont moins dépendantes du secteur agricole. Ces résultats suggèrent donc qu'une réduction plus importante des barrières commerciales à l'échelle mondiale, notamment à travers une plus grande coopération entre les Membres de l'OMC pour promouvoir la libéralisation commerciale multilatérale, contribuerait à renforcer la diversification des recettes fiscales.

Abstract This paper demonstrates that international investment disturbs the conventionally understood equivalence between import tariffs and export taxes. Fundamentally, remittances to foreigners introduce an additional pecuniary channel between countries so that two‐good Lerner Symmetry generally will not hold. Moreover, because tariffs subsidize investors in the local import competing sector while export taxes can extract rent from foreign investors in the export sector, the pattern of international investment will influence government preferences over trade policy instruments as well as levels. Notably, trade tax symmetry is restored by introducing a third policy tool in the form of a direct a tax on international remittances.

Borders are central to cooperation and conflict between communities and states in the Somali inhabited Horn of Africa. Often overlooked because of their peripheral location, borders in the Somali territories are crucial sites of revenue and state-making. The political and economic significance of these borders can hardly be overstated. As in other parts of the region, cross-border commodity trading between Somalia, Somaliland and their neighbours constitutes a lifeline for local livelihoods. Taxation of cross-border trade is the main source of income for various Somali state entities—whether national or sub-national. Trade politics in the Somali borderlands brings to the fore the competitive nature of state-building in the Somali territories. Political and commercial interests influence commodity flows and profits across these trading borders. All of these dynamics shape both cooperative and antagonistic relations across internal and external borders, including between neighbouring state administrations. Considering how Somali trading borders work not only provides important insights into the relations between trade, taxation and state-building. It also allows for a better grasp of conflicts at the border, as trading borders—in particular checkpoints where various authorities tax goods—are often strongly contested. While the physical extent of territorial states and aspiring administrations are defined by their borders, as the Somali case shows, they are also largely financed by economic transactions across the border. Livestock and commodity trading are most salient for revenue generation and state intervention when they cross state and social or clan boundaries. It is at these border crossings, whether a formal border post, an informal 'bush' border or checkpoints along main roads, where state and state-like entities seek to govern and capture revenues from passing goods. This paper argues that there is a need, and indeed an opportunity, for policy-makers to pay greater attention to trading borders in the Somali territories. Borders are both sites where state-building can be supported and where conflicts, in particular over revenues and trade corridors, can be defused. As federalization and state-building in Somali territories continue, Federal Member States (FMSs) and the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland seek to develop their trade corridors by extending them to new goods and services. These trade corridors, in particular seaports, serve as main sources of public income and bolster the legitimacy of these (sub-)national administrations. Negotiated trade and customs policies, fiscal federalism and economic integration are thus of major concern to avoid state-driven competition over trade revenues at Somali borders. As this paper demonstrates, assisting Somali public administrations to move from antagonistic to more cooperative trade relations is an integral part of state-building. This process starts at the border where commodity trading occurs.

The paper analyses the gains from trade in distortionary tax revenue between countries, focussing on the case where lump-sum reveue transfers are restricted. In this case, trade taxes can be used to transfer government revenue between countries, and such taxes will typically be used in Pareto-efficient international equilibria. Global production efficiency conditions are often, though not always, satisfied at Pareto-efficient allocations involving trade taxes, but the implications for international taxation differ from those that have been put forward on the basis of the Diamond-mirrlees production efficiency theorem.

Examines ways in which specific measures of trade policy reform and country characteristics may affect government revenue. Identifies country-and reform-characterstics that can be expected to influence the vulnerability to, and direction of, trade-reform-induced revenue changes. Examines empirical evidence using cross-sectional and case study material. (SJK)

The article estimates the cost of taxing the export, import or domestic sectors for the purpose of reducing the national debt. A simple GNP model is used to estimate the elasticities that characterise the three sectors and are used to simulate the effects of taxing for debt servicing. (DSE/DÜI)