Center for Freedom and Prosperity

For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 31, 2002
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org

OECD Eats Crow…Again: Barbados Removed from Blacklist Without Signing Away Sovereignty

Washington (January 31, 2002) – The following is a statement from Andrew Quinlan, president of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, on the announcement by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that Barbados will not appear on the OECD's forthcoming list of so-called "uncooperative tax havens."

"The OECD has suffered another setback.  It now admits that Barbados has no reason to be on any blacklist. Last May, Treasury Secretary O'Neill pressured the OECD to moderate its strident tone and eliminate some of its more radical proposals, thereby rendering the OECD's 'harmful tax competition' project irrelevant.

"For the last eighteen months, the OECD has said that the only way to get off the 'blacklist' was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) emasculating tax competition, financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty. In fact, however, Barbados did not sign a MOU. We hope this is a sign that the OECD is ceasing its attack on the domestic policies of sovereign nations. It is time to put the 'blacklist' in the 'black hole' of history."

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The Center for Freedom and Prosperity is an Alexandria, Virginia-based, 501(c)(4) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that lobbies Congress and the Administration on tax competition, financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty.

For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, quinlan@freedomandprosperity.org

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