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Gibraltar Minister Heads Delegation To OECD Paris Meeting

Government Press Release

31 January 2001

The Minister for Trade & Industry, Keith Azopardi, will represent Gibraltar at the European Regional meeting on Thursday 1st February in Paris organised by the OECD in relation to so-called "Harmful Tax Practices". A similar meeting was held recently for the Caribbean Region and one is planned for the Pacific Region.

These meetings form part of the on-going dialogue between Finance Centres around the world and the OECD. The OECD is seeking from Finance Centres by 31st July 2001 certain commitments to gradually eliminate so-called harmful tax practices by December 2005.

The statement last week by Dr Garcia, Opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry, that the Government should have given the commitment in 1998 and thus "saved us the bad publicity that went along with being blacklisted" suggests a lack of knowledge and understanding of this matter and of the potential consequences of it for our Finance Centre and economy.

Contrary to the Opposition's statement there is no black list and there is no bad publicity. The vast majority of the worlds leading Finance Centres have not yet given the commitment but, like Gibraltar, are engaged in dialogue with the OECD.

The Government has indicated publicly on many occasions that it envisages giving the required commitments. The on-going dialogue with the OECD is designed to ensure that before the commitment is given there is a guarantee of a global level playing field on financial services, that the same standards will apply to all other jurisdictions around the world and that there is clarity and certainty as to what is required.

The Government has been actively and constructively engaged in this matter for several years, including consultation with the Finance Centre. The issue is too important and complex for flippant, simplistic and ill-informed political comment.

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