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US importers have traditionally met with little success when challenging unfavourable rulings by the US Customs authorities. The decision in Mead represents an important challenge to this state of affairs. By Damon Pike and Giovanni DiCenso, of Deloitte & Touche, Atlanta and Washington DC

European Commission plans to modernize company taxation in the EU have received a mixed response. The Commission and other proponents of the plans claim that they will cut compliance costs for companies operating in more than one European country and boost cross-border investment. Critics argue that the plans are another step towards tax harmonization and are unrealistic.

For the past two years, the results of International Tax Review's Latin America survey have yielded few surprises, with little movement in the ranking of firms. However, as this year's results show, the dynamics could be changing. Find out why. By Sharon Cunningham

DATE TYPE OF DEAL VALUE ACQUIRER TARGET HOLDER ADVISERS TO TARGET ADVISERS TO ACQUIRER ADVISERS TO HOLDER 18/11/01 merger $35 billion Phillips Petroleum Co Conoco Inc n/a Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Lew Steinberg Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York, Deborah Paul n/a 19/11/01 notes offering $1.25 billion Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank n/a lead managers Morgan Stanley & Co; Schroder Salomon Smith Barney; BNP Paribas n/a Sullivan & Cromwell, New York Eliyahu Jacobson, Shlomo Cohen Davis Polk & Wardwell, London Lydia Kess, Angelica Kwan; Hengeler Mueller, Frankfurt, Martin Klein 19/11/01 acquisition £1.3 billion ($1.86 billion) London Electricity Eastern Electricity, 24Seven TXU Europe Ltd n/a Denton Wilde Sapte, London Charlotte Sallabank Norton Rose, London Christopher Norfolk, Emma Fotheringham 20/11/01 merger $6 billion Royal Caribbean Cruises P&O Princess Cruises n/a n/a n/a Slaughter and May, London Stephen Edge, Lee Whittle; Davis Polk & Wardwell, London, Lydia Kess, Rob Heller; KPMG, London, Chris Morgan n/a 20/11/01 acquisition $1.6 billion Johnson Wax Professional DiverseyLever Unilever plc Slaughter and May, London, Tony Beare, Gillian Wheeler; Cravath, Swaine & Moore Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, London, Keith Featherstone n/a 23/11/01 outsourcing deal £2.38 billion ($3.41 billion) Telereal (joint venture, Land Securities Trillium; Pears Group) BT n/a Ashurst Morris Crisp, London, Susan Crawford; Andersen, London, Andrew Rothery, Lisa McKibben Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Michael Thompson, Peter Cosmetatos, Tim Crosley n/a 27/11/01 privatization $900 million France Telecom 12.5% of Telekomunikacja Polska Polish Treasury in-house, Claire Beziau Baker & McKenzie, Warsaw, Slawomir Boruc n/a 29/11/01 acquisition $537 million South African Breweries plc 97.5% of Cerveceria Hondurena Dole Food Company n/a Dewey Ballantine, London, Fred Gander, Javier Gonzales O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, Robert Blashek 30/11/01 notes offering $1.5 billion Instituto de Credito Oficial (ICO) n/a lead managers; Credit Suisse First Boston; Schroder Salomon Smith Barney n/a Davis Polk & Wardwell, London, John Paton, Robert Heller n/a 7/12/01 securitization £875 million ($1.25 billion) The British Land Company Meadowhall shopping centre Lead managers, Royal Bank of Scotland; Schroder Salomon Smith Barney; Morgan Stanley n/a Simmons & Simmons, London, Edward Troup, Nicholas Fagge Clifford Chance, London, Michael Wistow, Sarah Squires, Tom Olliver

In a recent Norwegian Supreme Court ruling, the court decided that a Swedish company was liable to Norwegian tax on income deriving from catering services rendered to an offshore platform by a Norwegian subcontractor.

HONG KONG SAR

A bundle of new tax acts that significantly alter the German tax system has passed into legislation. As part of the continuing tax reform, the legislator has changed the taxation of foreign executives of German companies. By Harald Herrmann and Maral Rösner of Clifford Chance Pünder, Frankfurt am Main

Russia lacks both the experience and the relevant information to put in place a truly effective transfer pricing regime, but the will is there. By Victor Matchekhin of Linklaters, Moscow

Tax planning can be a decisive element in the success or failure of acquisition in Latin America. Certain strategies increase the chances of maximizing a bid. By Nicasio del Castillo, New York; Jorge Gross, Miami; Ramon Mullerat, Spain; and Alberto Lopez and Manuel Solano, Mexico City, of PricewaterhouseCoopers

The US senate has demonstrated its faith in e-business and extended a ban on internet taxes (the Internet Tax Freedom Act) until November 2003.