This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more here.  
  • Delicious




Former US First Lady Backs Caribbean In OECD Fight

Jeremy Hetherington-Gore, Tax-News.com, London

12 February 2001

Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton has written to US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in support of Caribbean financial jurisdictions in their battle against the OECD over harmful tax competition. The US is of course a member of the OECD.

The ex-First Lady also copied the letter to St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas, the prime minister of Jamaica, Percival Patterson; and the Caricom secretary-general, Edwin Carrington, said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office in St Kitts.

The letter says that the OECD's initiative may cause significant damage to the Caribbean economies. Senator Clinton accuses the OECD of financial protectionism:

"As you surely realise, the Caribbean has been subject to grave economic pressures because it is increasingly difficult for the region to prosper while relying on basic commodities such as sugar and bananas," says the letter, "This is a fundamental violation of sovereignty. Perhaps more importantly, however, the OECD's attack on international tax competition undermines the ability of these nations to develop and/or maintain financial services industries."

Senator Clinton's attack on the OECD amounts to a denial of the policy carried forward by her husband's administration over the last 8 years, notably by Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and his deputy Stuart Eizenstat. The former First Lady now thinks that the world's wealthy nations should not be trying to penalise developing nations for enacting tax policies that are attractive to investors. Is this a Damascene (or perhaps Harlemian) conversion, or did Hilary Clinton always think this way? Did Bill and Hilary have arguments about it?

Never mind, the Caribbean jurisdictions need all the help they can get against the OECD, and Senator Clinton certainly doesn't pull her puches:

"OECD countries control the vast majority of the world's capital and have benefitted for centuries from exploitive relationships with the less developed world", she says, "For the industrialised world to suddenly threaten severe penalties on these nations because they now are becoming effective competitors is both morally objectionable and economically misguided."

The letter concludes: "I hope you will re-examine American support for the OECD's anti-tax competition campaign."

.

 

 






Write a comment