Panama Seminar To Examine OECD Tax Proposals

by Mike Godfrey, for LawAndTax-News.com, New York

16 May 2005

Plans announced by the OECD to encourage major increases in 3rd world development funding and to support the United Nations proposals for global taxes will be on the agenda of a Tax Competition Roundtable Seminar to be co-hosted in Panama by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Panama-based Fundación Libertad on May 18th.

Last week, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation and several members of the Coalition for Tax Competition condemned the OECD for its recent ministerial statement that indicated sympathy for global taxation and called for massive increases in foreign aid spending.

"The OECD has been pushing anti-American economic policies for years. The international bureaucracy's anti-tax competition/pro-tax harmonization project is a direct attack on America's free-market, pro-growth tax policies. Now the OECD is expressing sympathy for "innovative sources of financing" – which is a clear reference to schemes for global taxes levied by the United Nations. It is time for the U.S. taxpayers, Congress and the Bush Administration to end financial support for the OECD," said Andrew Quinlan, president of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation.

In the statement released by the OECD at the conclusion of its Annual Ministerial meeting in Paris, the OECD endorsed a United Nations plan for "achieving the internationally agreed development goals" requiring each developed country to transfer 0.7 percent of economic output to third-world countries. This would require an increase in U.S. foreign aid spending from about $15 billion to more than $80 billion per year, an increase of 450 percent. The OECD also expressed support for "innovative financing measures" being pushed by the United Nations. While the statement carefully avoided specifics, these measures have included the creation of an International Tax Organization and new global taxes such as a carbon tax, the Tobin Tax (a levy on international currency transactions) and an emigrant tax.

Daniel Mitchell, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, commented, "Foreign aid spending has a terrible track record. It generally lines the pockets of the political elite in developing nations and often is a substitute for the pro-market reforms that nations need to boost growth. It is disturbing – but not surprising – that the OECD has endorsed this misguided initiative. What is surprising, by contrast, is the OECD's expression of support for U.N. global tax schemes, particularly since the U.S. Treasury Secretary recently announced opposition to 'innovative financing measures.' Apparently, the bureaucrats in Paris feel that they can push anti-American policies without any consequences."

The OECD statement said: "We, Ministers of OECD countries, gathered at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting on 3-4 May 2005 in Paris, reaffirm our strong commitment to the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus and for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration... We are committed to significantly increase the volume of our collective aid as agreed in the Monterrey Consensus. ...Five DAC countries currently meet the target of 0.7 per cent of GNI as ODA and a further seven countries have committed to reaching the target by a specific date. Fulfillments of these commitments would further increase aid volumes from $78.6 billion in 2004 to $115 billion by 2010. We urge all donors, including emerging donors, to make their best efforts. ...We also recognise that even greater resources, including aid, are needed to reach the MDGs by 2015 and for supporting regional and global collective action. This is a challenge in the preparations for the UN High Level Meeting in New York in September 2005. In this context a number of innovative financing measures have been proposed for development."

The Panama Tax Competition Roundtable Seminar will be held on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 at the InterContinental Miramar Hotel in Panama City.

The main topics at the Roundtable will be the virtues of tax competition and the adverse consequences of the tax harmonization proposals of the OECD, EU and UN on Panama and other low-tax countries.

The Roundtable Seminar is designed to encourage a free-flowing exchange of ideas and comments from those who attend. Five key international tax experts will share their views during the seminar. Former U.S. Congressman Bob Bauman, Fundación Libertad Vice President Carlos Ernesto Gonzalez, Former Ambassador of International Commerce Affairs Francisco Alvarez de Soto, Heritage Foundation scholar Dan Mitchell and Center for Freedom and Prosperity President Andrew F. Quinlan.

The expected topics for discussion include: Update on the OECD, EU and UN tax schemes; why Panama should be concerned about recent developments; U.S. funding for the OECD and UN; exposing the radical, socialist agenda of the European-based Tax Justice Network; foreign investment in Panama; multi-national organizations attack on financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty; update on the status of the U.S./Panama tax information exchange agreement; and discussion on the U.S./Panama free trade agreement.

The Roundtable Seminar is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation at 202-285-0244 (panama@freedomandprosperity.org) or the Liberty Foundation (info@fundacionlibertad.org.pa).

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