The jurisdiction was under significant financial pressure to reach an agreement with the multilateral organisation, as it is a signatory to the Cotonou agreement under which it stands to benefit to the tune of $6 million a year for 15 years from the EU, but only if it meets international standards of financial supervision.

However, the commitment which the OECD has recently accepted contained a provision which has come to be known as the 'Isle of Man' clause, which states that the agreement to amend transparency and information exchange laws is conditional on all offshore jurisdictions and OECD members doing likewise.

Speaking earlier this month, a spokesman for the International Tax and Investment Organisation (a grouping of small and developing economies established last year to assess the impact of international tax and money laundering initiatives on smaller nations) observed that:

'It will be interesting to see whether the OECD accepts these reasonable conditions or whether it still demands that small states have to make these changes more quickly than the OECD's own offshore centres of Switzerland and Luxembourg, which will have the effect of advancing OECD members' own interests at the expense of small countries.'

However, the OECD on Wednesday said that it looked forward to working with the Cook Islands, announcing in a statement that the jurisdiction: 'would be invited to participate, together with other committed jurisdictions and OECD member countries, in the meetings of the OECD's Global Forum to discuss the design of standards for the implementation of these and any similar commitments.'