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Antigua Seeks Advice From The Isle Of Man On OECD Blacklisting

Jason Gorringe, Tax-news.com, London

17 August 2000

The High Commissioner to London for Antigua and Barbuda, Ronald Sanders, said yesterday that the jurisdiction would be asking the Channel islands and the Isle of Man for advice on how to deal with OECD black-listing.

Commissioner Sanders said, "My Prime Minister is interested in learning about the experience of the Channel Islands in dealing with the OECD, and we are grateful to the Isle of Man’s government for giving us the chance to compare notes.'

"We believe that the more we learn about the objectives of the OECD and how the organization is treating individual countries, the better we will all be placed to deal with the OECD itself," he said.

Commissioner Sanders was due to visit the Isle of Man on Tuesday for discussions with the island’s chief minister, Donald Gelling, and senior representatives of the financial services sector, including Chief Secretary Fred Kissack.

Ambassador Sanders, who holds ministerial rank, is holding the discussions as a personal emissary of Prime Minister Lester Bird.

Perhaps this is the beginnings of a new revenue stream for the UK's offshore dependencies? Helping less well-regulated jurisdictions to measure up to the OECD's guidelines could be a lucrative business. As today's top jurisdictions become 'respectable' they will presumably lose their clientele to new, less scrupulous jurisidictions drawn from the inexhaustible supply of small tropical islands dotted around the globe, and they will need to find new sources of income to replace the departed HINWIs (High Net Worth Individuals).

Both Antigua & Barbuda and the Isle of Man were listed in June by the OECD as tax havens, along with 33 other jurisdictions.

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