At a little known but powerful international court of arbitration, so secretive that senior officials decline to disclose even the dates of hearings, a new case has been filed that will pitch a mighty US oil major from Houston, Texas, against one of the world’s last Communist-run countries.
On the face of it, this battle between ConocoPhillips and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is as dry as it gets. Hardly anyone has yet heard of it.
But the result could mark a significant shift in the way huge multinationals fight off the threat of taxes from desperate revenue authorities in developing countries.
For ConocoPhillips is using the not-so-glamourous Bilateral Investment Treaty Mechanism of the UN to launch a pre-emptive legal strike against Vietnam’s intention to levy an estimated $179m capital gains tax charge on oil fields sold by one of its UK subsidiaries.
Finance Uncovered
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