Organizzazione mondiale del commercio, disciplina in materia di sovvenzioni ed imposizione diretta: alcune riflessioni

The Multilateral agreements on the freedom of trade have assumed in the contemporary economy a far-reaching importance. Among the various multilateral agreements on trade by far the most important is the WTO/GATT agreement. Of course these agreements, that aim to accomplish a liberalization of the trades between Members, mainly deal with the regulations of the Members that directly may affect the free flow of goods among the members. Therefore they have traditionally dealt with tax issues only marginally and mainly with reference to custom duties and indirect taxation. Nonetheless as musch as the liberalization process achieved its scope of eliminating the traditional trade barriers and limitation, the role that direct taxation could play as a trade barrier has become evident. The following article aims at highlighting some direct tax issues related to these agreements.