New York, USA — Haiti and the wider Caribbean are seeking a stronger voice in the emerging global tax system as governments and stakeholders debate how countries should cooperate on taxation in an increasingly digital and interconnected global economy.
From August 3 to 13, 2026, the United Nations Headquarters in New York hosted the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. The session brought Member States and accredited stakeholders together to negotiate the foundations of a future global framework for international tax cooperation.
I had the privilege of participating in the process as a representative of the Farah Delance Foundation, bringing to the discussions a perspective rooted in Haiti, the Caribbean, civil society, women, youth and the connection between public resources and human development.
For me, the global tax debate is about much more than tax rates, corporate structures or technical provisions.
It is about whether governments have the resources to build schools, hospitals, roads and digital infrastructure. It is about whether young people can envision a future in their own communities rather than believing that migration is their only path to opportunity. And it is about whether developing countries have a meaningful voice when international rules governing the global economy are established.
For Haiti and the Caribbean, these questions are particularly urgent.
Haiti: Taxation, Development and Migration Are Connected
Haiti cannot discuss taxation separately from development.
When governments lack sufficient domestic resources to finance public services, infrastructure, education, healthcare and economic opportunity, the consequences extend far beyond national budgets. They affect families, communities and, ultimately, migration patterns.
My position throughout this engagement has therefore been clear: international tax cooperation must be connected to development.
Haitians should not be compelled to look beyond their homeland simply because their country has been unable to mobilize and retain sufficient resources to create sustainable opportunities.
Migration is complex, and taxation alone cannot solve Haiti’s challenges. However, responsible taxation, stronger institutions, transparency, investment and fairer international economic rules can help create conditions in which people can choose to travel, study, work or build businesses abroad without feeling that leaving home is their only path to survival or advancement.
For Haiti, the central question should be: How can international tax cooperation help countries mobilize the resources necessary to invest in their own people?
That question belongs at the heart of the global tax conversation.
Jamaica’s Important Role in the Negotiations
Jamaica has also played an important role in the UN tax process.
The Jamaican delegation has been actively engaged in the negotiations, with Jamaican tax official Marlene Nembhard-Parker serving as co-lead of Workstream III, focused on the prevention and resolution of international tax disputes, alongside Germany’s Michael Braun.
For the Caribbean, dispute resolution is not an abstract technical issue. Small and developing economies can face significant differences in negotiating capacity when dealing with larger economies and multinational businesses. Effective and fair mechanisms for resolving tax disputes are therefore important to protecting national interests.
Jamaica’s participation demonstrates that Caribbean countries are not simply observers of the emerging international tax architecture. They possess expertise and perspectives that can help shape the rules themselves.
The Caribbean Cannot Afford to Be Absent
The wider Caribbean has a direct stake in the outcome of these negotiations.
Small island developing states often face a difficult combination of limited domestic markets, exposure to external economic shocks, climate vulnerability, high financing costs and substantial development needs.
Barbados, for example, has advocated for an inclusive, fair, transparent and equitable international tax system and emphasized the importance of the United Nations as an inclusive forum for international tax cooperation. It has also called for greater consideration of environmental and climate-related taxation within the international tax agenda.
This Caribbean perspective is essential.
The region needs an international tax system that recognizes that a country’s economic size should not determine the strength of its voice.
A Divided International Debate
The negotiations have also exposed significant differences among Member States.
The Terms of Reference adopted in 2024 received support from 110 countries, while eight countries — Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States — voted against it. Forty-four countries abstained, including Argentina and Trinidad and Tobago.
The disagreement was not simply about whether countries support taxation. It involved deeper questions concerning institutional authority, decision-making, the scope of the proposed framework, its relationship with existing international tax arrangements, and how future commitments should be negotiated and implemented.
The United States, for example, raised concerns about the level of global support for the process and warned about the potential for greater fragmentation within the international tax system.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Israel and the United Kingdom likewise opposed the Terms of Reference.
At the same time, developing countries have been among the strongest supporters of the initiative.
The African Group has emerged as a major political force behind efforts to create a more inclusive international tax architecture and strengthen the participation of developing countries in global tax decision-making.
At its core, the debate raises a much broader question about global governance:
Who gets to establish the rules of the international economy?
Taxation in the Digital Economy
Another major issue for developing countries is the taxation of income generated through cross-border and increasingly digital economic activity.
The first early protocol under negotiation addresses taxation of income derived from the provision of cross-border services in an increasingly digitalized and globalized economy.
This issue is particularly important for Caribbean economies.
A company no longer necessarily needs a traditional physical presence in a country to generate substantial economic value from its consumers, businesses or digital market.
For Caribbean nations seeking to expand their digital economies, the future rules governing cross-border services could influence how much revenue governments can mobilize from economic activity taking place within, or connected to, their jurisdictions.
That is precisely why developing countries must have a meaningful seat at the negotiating table.
Tax Justice Must Become Development Justice
Representing the Farah Delance Foundation, I entered this process with a clear conviction: tax justice cannot be separated from social justice, economic development and human dignity.
Governments have responsibilities to their people. Citizens and businesses also have responsibilities to contribute to the societies in which they operate. But international rules must ensure that taxation is transparent, equitable and capable of supporting sustainable development.
For Haiti, that means strengthening domestic capacity.
For Jamaica and other Caribbean nations, it means ensuring that the international system recognizes the realities and vulnerabilities of small economies.
For developing countries more broadly, it means ensuring that international tax rules are not shaped exclusively according to the priorities of the world’s largest economies.
And for civil society, it means ensuring that the voices of women, young people, communities and development organizations are not lost within highly technical negotiations.
The Farah Delance Foundation’s Commitment
The Farah Delance Foundation will continue advocating for an international tax system that contributes to inclusive and sustainable development.
Our position is not that taxation is a solution to every problem.
Rather, it is that without adequate and fairly mobilized public resources, governments cannot sustainably finance the solutions their populations need.
Tax revenues can help strengthen education systems, improve healthcare, finance essential infrastructure, support youth development, expand opportunities for women and girls, and create economic conditions in which migration becomes a choice rather than an economic necessity.
That is the conversation Haiti deserves.
That is the conversation the Caribbean deserves.
And that is why civil society must remain actively engaged in the global tax negotiations.
From New York to Nairobi
The fifth session marks another important stage in a negotiating process scheduled to continue through 2027.
The United Nations has scheduled the sixth session for November 30 to December 11, 2026, in Nairobi, Kenya, followed by further negotiations in 2027 before the proposed framework convention and protocols are submitted for consideration by the General Assembly.
The work, therefore, does not end in New York.
For the Farah Delance Foundation, participation in the fifth session is part of a broader commitment to ensuring that Haiti, the Caribbean, women, youth and developing communities are represented in the conversations where the rules of the global economy are being shaped.
The international tax system of tomorrow is being negotiated today.
The Caribbean must be in the room. Haiti must have a voice. And development must remain at the heart of the conversation.
Farah Linot Delance, MPH, is President & CEO of the Farah Delance Foundation. She participated in the fifth session of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation in New York as a representative of the Farah Delance Foundation.
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