OECD Accused Of Gagging Free Market Think Tank

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

04 September 2009

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a free market think tank, has accused the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development of stifling opposition to its policies at the body’s Global Tax Forum in Mexico.

Senior members of the CF&P were attending the Forum to argue the case that low-tax jurisdictions oil the wheels of the global economy rather than pose a threat to it, as is commonly argued by the powerful high-tax nations which are counted among the OECD’s membership. However, they claim that the OECD is resorting to “harassment” of those rare souls attempting to speak out in defence of global tax competition and free markets at the Mexico event.

The Tax Forum was originally scheduled to take place in Los Cabos but was switched to Mexico City because of a hurricane warning.

CF&P President Andy Quinlan and Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute, say that their hotel reservations at the original venue were cancelled at the last minute when it emerged that the OECD had reserved the entire hotel. "This was an extraordinary step for the OECD to take in hopes of insulating delegates from free market views," Mitchell remarked.

However, according to the CF&P, the OECD’s surprising tactics did not stop there, and when the two men followed the Forum to the Mexican capital, an OECD security official attempted to eject them from a public lobby area outside the meeting room in the new conference venue – a hotel where Quinn and Mitchell were also guests.

"For a group that ostensibly has transparency as one of its goals, the OECD's hypocrisy is remarkable," argued Quinlan. "Not only do they refuse to allow taxpayers to observe their events, they don't even want them anywhere in the immediate vicinity."

The Center argues that, in the face of the threat of sanctions by the high-tax states, low-tax jurisdictions have been forced to weaken their human-rights policies by agreeing that privacy laws no longer protect foreign investors.

“Dominated by European welfare states, the OECD has been working for more than 10 years to impose punitive international tax rules in order to prop up the inefficient policies of its member nations,” wrote Mitchell in a strategic memorandum published shortly before the start of the Global Tax Forum.

“It is unclear whether high-tax nations see the meeting in Mexico as an opportunity to cement existing gains, or a springboard for further concessions, but that is just a matter of timing," Mitchell noted, before going on to warn that: “The low-tax jurisdictions should realize that agreeing to a dozen information-sharing pacts does not buy them any good will. Instead, that merely encourages high-tax nations to up the ante with additional demands.”

As the old saying goes: ‘give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a foot. But before long you haven’t got a leg to stand on…’

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