Research & Analysis

With the TPP’s future uncertain as a result of the withdrawal of the United States, its largest member, and with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations entering their fifth year, Asia’s trade landscape is at a critical juncture. In evaluating the trade and investment trends and prospects in the region and around the world, members of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Independent Commission on Trade Policy arrived at a central finding: regional trade agreements offer the best path forward to liberalize trade, raise standards, and promote broad reforms.

On April 16, 2016, China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT) published amended measures to what is known as the blacklist system against tax illegalities. The amended measures, which came into effect on June 1, 2016, add a credit repair mechanism to the original system.

Labor disputes often arise due to companies underestimation or ignorance of China’s strict labor laws. Keeping up to date with China’s labor regulations and taking proper precautions to prevent disputes from occurring can save employers immeasurable stress.

MNCs are now faced with a particularly stressful situation. As China’s economy is starting to slow, foreign companies are reassessing their footprint in China – and many have realized they no longer need the facilities, people, or partners they had. However, MNCs are finding that the broader regulatory climate and the psychology of laborers are shifting, making it difficult to safely restructure operations and prevent a labor or commercial disputes.

Transfer pricing—the price charged for intercompany transactions between entities in different tax jurisdictions—can be used to shift funds within a multinational corporation (MNC), and serves as an effective means to manage a firm’s finances.

Hailed as China’s most significant tax reform in more than two decades, the value-added tax (VAT) was comprehensively implemented as the country’s only indirect tax in 2016, effectively replacing the business tax (BT). The reform is part of Beijing’s efforts to restructure the Chinese economy from one driven by labor-intensive manufacturing to one that is service-oriented by easing the tax burden on service industries.