The Market Center Blog

Center for Freedom and Prosperity

For Immediate Release
Friday, June 4, 2004
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org

OECD Suffers Setback, Postpones Anti-Privacy Effort
Paris-Based Bureaucracy Creates new Blacklist, Targets Chinese

Berlin, June 4, 2004 – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suffered yet another setback at its recently concluded Global Forum on Taxation. By postponing the next Global Forum until the end of 2005, the Paris-based bureaucracy effectively conceded that its 2006 target date for the extra-territorial application of bad tax law was no longer possible.

In another interesting development, the OECD issued a new blacklist that targets Chinese jurisdictions. Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia (Labuan), and Singapore are identified. The new blacklist also targets Andorra, Barbados, Brunei, Costa Rica, Dubai, Guatemala, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Philippines, and Uruguay.

Andrew Quinlan, President of Center for Freedom and Prosperity, stated, "This concession is good news for tax competition, but the OECD has not given up in its effort to prop up high-tax welfare states. The new blacklist is quite disturbing."

Dan Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation was also present in Berlin for the conference. He stated that, "The OECD's anti-tax reform agenda is a threat to global prosperity, a scheme to promote higher tax rates and the discriminatory double-taxation of income that is saved and invested. The postponement of the 2006 deadline is good news, but the new blacklist shows that fiscal imperialism is alive and well."

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity co-sponsored a tax competition conference that took place June 2, 2004. Deliberately scheduled to occur the day before the OECD Global Forum, the conference featured 10 speakers who discussed the liberalizing impact of tax competition. Numerous delegates to the OECD Global Forum attended the Center's event.

For additional comments:

Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, quinlan@freedomandprosperity.org
Dan Mitchell can be reached at 202-608-6224, dan.mitchell@heritage.org

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Center for Freedom and Prosperity
P.O. Box 10882
Alexandria, Virginia 22310
Phone: 202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
cfp@freedomandprosperity.org

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