OECD Says Pacific Islands Have 4 Weeks To Comply

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

04 February 2002

Following the announcement that Barbados has been removed from the OECD's blacklist of countries with 'harmful tax practices', it was revealed that the six Pacific Island havens which remain on the list - the Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, and Vanuatu - have just four weeks to demonstrate willingness to submit to the multilateral organisation's demands.

In a speech given on Thursday, the Head of the OECD's Fiscal Affairs Committee, Gabriel Makhlouf, asked the Pacific Island countries to commit themselves to improving the transparency of their tax systems and to agree to exchange information with high tax countries.

'The Committee has devoted considerable resources to discussions with the uncommitted jurisdictions including visits to the Caribbean, Pacific and other regions,' he revealed. 'We believe that all jurisdictions are now well placed to make a decision to commit before 28 February 2002.'

The 11 jurisdictions which were named as having made commitments to improve tax transparency and information exchange were named as: Aruba, Bahrain, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, the Isle of Man, Malta, Mauritius, the Netherlands Antilles, San Marino, and the Seychelles.

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