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Tax Avoidance and Evasion

The hon. Gentleman seems to be developing an argument that poorer countries are giving such incentives of their free will to provide the right business environment to create jobs. Surely the reality is that the multinationals go on a reverse Dutch bidding war to see which country will give them the biggest discounts. One only has to look at copper pricing in Zambia to see how damaging it is to the income stream of poorer countries. Surely the balance of trade in that negotiation is very much with the larger multinational corporations and not with the developing countries' Governments.