خرید و دانلود نسخه کامل کتاب Options for Operationalising Transparency in Commodity Trading Transactions – Original PDF

At the international level, the development of a global standard on payment disclosure by buying companies could lead to the creation of a level playing field across jurisdictions. This option would allow trading hubs to compete on an equal footing while maintaining high standards of integrity and would reduce the burden on buying companies by harmonising their reporting requirements globally. Furthermore, the public disclosure of comparable and readily accessible data can enable governments, civil society organisations, and other interested stakeholders to have a fuller picture of the revenues that resource-rich countries receive for the sale of their commodities. The 2019 EITI Standard encourages buying companies to disclose payments for the purchase of publicly- owned commodities, and notably Equinor, Glencore, Gunvor, TotalEnergies and Trafigura now disclose information in respect of their payments to governments using the EITI framework. However, on a global basis, such disclosures represent only a tiny fraction of the payments to governments for the purchase of publicly-owned commodities. A global standard on payment disclosure should include the participation of trading hubs and jurisdictions where buying companies are registered in order to enjoy broad multi-stakeholder ownership and legitimacy, and to capture the majority of global commodity sales transactions. Disclosures should be mandatory rather than encouraged in order to increase their uptake by buying companies, and in order to ensure consistency across commodity sales transactions, reporting requirements should apply to both listed and private companies. In the absence of a coherent global standard, home governments, including trading hubs may choose to introduce requirements for companies to disclose information in respect of payments to governments on a unilateral basis – either through the adoption of general regulations or, in jurisdictions where commodity exchanges operate, through specific regulations applicable to companies operating on that exchange. This option would increase public disclosure of the details of commodity sales transactions, but unless aligned with a common reporting framework, such as the one provided by the EITI Reporting Guidelines for companies buying oil, gas and minerals from governments, may increase the reporting burden and compliance costs for companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, and would likely lead to a fragmentation of reporting and challenges with comparability of data by end-users.