LONDON—Multinational companies could be forced to reveal far more about their finances in developing countries following a European Commission move which Christian Aid experts welcomed as ‘hugely exciting’.
The Guardian's Felicity Lawrence recently filed an excellent article on global pineapple trade. Taking the example of Costa Rica, she outlined the low wages and union busting, the environmental harm caused by excessive use of agro-chemicals, and the injuries and health problems incurred by workers.
The article has touched several raw nerves, and much of the industry response has focussed on the "economic" benefit to Costa Rica. Employment creation is one, but this can be limited to low wage employment with little in the way of useful knowledge transfer. ...
Christian has just released a new video highlighting the important link between poverty and tax evasion in Guatemala. Check it out:
Hannah Richards, Christian Aid's communications and information officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, recently wrote about this problem in a blog post on the Christian Aid website after witnessing the devastating effects of tax-dodging on the ground in Guatemala.
Hannah writes:
Christian Aid Scotland and the Church of Scotland launched this joint October 2010 report to raise awareness of the billions lost to developing countries from tax evasion and avoidance and to call on the International Accounting Standards Board to introduce an international country-by-country reporting standard.
