The report, entitled 'The OECD's Project on Harmful Tax Practices: The 2001 Progress Report,' is a follow-up to the June 2000 Report and is a response to the 1998 Ministerial Mandate to address harmful tax competition. It describes the progress made over the last year in identifying and addressing harmful tax practices within and outside the OECD.

According to the report, there are now a total of 11 committed jurisdictions out of the original 35 named tax havens. They are: Aruba, Bahrain, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Malta, Mauritius, Netherlands Antilles, San Marino, and Seychelles. In addition, Tonga has taken measures to eliminate its harmful tax practices and no longer meets the tax haven criteria.

In addition to extending the deadline, the OECD decided that the criteria for determining whether or not a tax haven is co-operative will be confined to transparency and exchange of information.

The multilateral organisation also agreed to draw up a co-ordinated framework of defensive measures to allow member countries to mitigate the impact on them of any remaining harmful tax practices, but stipulated that such measures 'would not apply to uncooperative tax havens any earlier than they would apply to OECD member countries with harmful preferential tax regimes.'

The OECD stated that it sought to 'establish a framework within which all countries, large and small, rich and poor, OECD and non-OECD, can work together constructively to eliminate harmful tax practices with respect to highly mobile activities such as in the financial and service areas.'