Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Countries are free to enter into agreements with other jurisdictions as they see fit. That is the whole point of the BEPS process: that we have common standards in place so there is a level playing field on certain aspects of tax co-operation. What this should look like is that, as more and more countries transpose the common standards as we have done through a multilateral instrument, any opportunities for inappropriate tax planning are gradually eroded because everybody moves up to a common standard. It is possible that competitive advantage could be gained through how different countries do double taxation agreements, but that is why the OECD process matters so much. It aims to bring everybody up to a certain standard.