FSDO organized, in collaboration with the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA), a 5-day regional workshop on the Practical Application of Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) from 5 to 9 December 2022. COTA comprises all members and extraordinary members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), namely Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

MAP is relevant for developing country policymakers and tax administrations because the fair and effective resolution of tax disputes serves to balance the need to raise revenues with the need to attract foreign direct investment.

Demand for capacity building activities, including workshops in the areas of tax treaties, tax dispute avoidance and resolution, including MAP, among others, has been repeatedly expressed by government representatives directly to FSDO, or through members of the UN Tax Committee and Member State Observers, as well as through regional tax organizations and during FSDO capacity development events.
In the Outcome document of the 2022 Financing for Development (FfD) Forum, Member States highlighted the importance of sound social, environmental and economic policies, including adequate fiscal space, to achieve the SDGs, and recommitted to strengthening the capacities of revenue administration through modernized, transparent and progressive tax systems, and improved tax policies. Member States called upon the international community to scale up capacity-building to developing countries, especially in building their tax policy and administration capacities.
Based on the above mandates, FSDO had exchanges with the CARICOM Secretariat; the latter expressed interest by COTA/CARICOM Member States in capacity development in MAP. As a result, FSDO delivered the workshop, which was anticipated to contribute to the development of technical knowledge and skills of government officials from the region in resolving MAP cases.