OECD forced to make major concessions,
but new agreement still dangerously flawed
by Andrew Quinlan, director, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Thanks to US leadership, the OECD has been forced to retreat. Deadlines have
been pushed back. Threats of financial protectionism have been reduced. Indeed,
the Paris-based bureaucracy has thrown in the towel on its tax harmonization
agenda. Equally important, they have been forced to scale back their "information
exchange" assault on financial privacy. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the OECD is still demanding that other countries have
an obligation to help enforce the oppressive tax laws of OECD member nations.
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity will be increasing its public education
campaign in the coming months. Given all the developments in recent days,
we will repel the OECD's fiscal imperialism. In the last 10 days alone, for
instance, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and two top House Committee chairmen,
Representatives David Dreier of California and John Boehner of Ohio, have
come out against the OECD's dangerous information exchange agenda. Leading
grassroots groups like the Free Congress Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform
and Citizens for a Sound Economy also have weighed in against the OECD's anti-privacy
initiative.
Tax competition, financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty should be celebrated,
not persecuted.
