This issue is devoted entirely to international taxation. This is a subject not easily accessed but over the years has been kept closed for most Africans. The world is changing and doors that used to be tightly shut have been opened. It is really important that African professionals get a grasp of the key issues of international tax as many major contemporary issues are arising. Without collective action appropriate results cannot be achieved. Collective action requires consensus and consensus requires understanding.
Our first article reveals the fundamental issue in policy which is that the energy does not come from policy but from the people. Utilising the mighty waves of the people’s energy enables great achievements such as the Pyramids to be made.
A next lesson is to recognize the fundamental importance of sovereignty and that under no circumstances should this be allowed to diminish. Loss of full sovereignty threatens the future of the country. Watching the German chancellor standing aside meekly next to a US Presin=dent announcing his intention to destroy a major German national asset should remind anyone who needs reminding what loss of sovereignty means.
2. Role of sovereignty in strategic options
Our next lesson is to begin to see the key elements of the geo-political context of Africa and China.
3. Simplified briefing on China in Africa
next we begin a more detailed analysis addressing the terms introduced by Halford Makinder, the founder of geo-politics and explaining in more formal terms the relationship between trade, geo-politcal issues and international taxation.
4. Trade, geopolitics and taxation – how they intertwine
Then, we look in detail at the present relationship between China and Africa. In particular, we address the level of Western academic scholarship on African issues using China as an important example thus alerting readers to have much lower expectations when it comes to quality when reading western academics on Africa.
Finally we review the whole area of international tax showing how globally important issues interface with tax policy and highlighting several issues that need to be addressed within the African international tax context such as the strategic need to amend trade routes, gross economic inequality and restitutive transfer pricing.