Economic Report - China and the 'Ham Capital of the World'

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Britain, demonstrators recently protested outside the Treasury to call on the richest countries to act against tax havens. These are countries or that have low tax rates for businesses. Companies can place their in tax havens to avoid the higher tax rates of countries they earned the income. An investigation found that tax havens cost $38 billion every year in lost taxes. Former United Nations secretary-general Annan led the investigation. The demonstrators at Britain's Treasury called on George Osborne to discuss the practice with finance ministers from other countries. Melanie Ward is with the "Enough For Everyone If" campaign. said she believes many people in Britain and the world oppose tax avoidanceTax havens and low-tax countries like Ireland are popular. But of tax havens say big companies transfer profits out of the on which their income depends. Ronen Palan is a professor at University London. He says capital in some African countries is funding in other parts of the world because of such transfers. The ActionAid says the brewing company SABMiller uses a complex system of havens. It says this system moves profits out of the company's in developing countries like Ghana. SABMiller denies any tax abuses. It in 2010 it paid about $250 million in corporate taxes in and sub-Saharan Africa. British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to the issue of tax havens at the G8 leaders meeting in . For VOA Learning English, I'm Laurel Bowman.

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