Colin Powell, adviser to the States on international affairs, and John Harris, director of international finance at Policy and Resources, were among over 130 representatives of 55 governments attending the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forum.
During the two days of discussions they reviewed a survey of legal and administrative frameworks submitted by 80 countries and agreed that although ‘considerable progress’ had been made towards transparency and effective exchange of information in tax matters – the so-called ‘level playing field’ – there were areas requiring improvement.
For example, some countries need to be more co-operative in fighting tax crimes and allow competent authorities access to bank information.
Countries were also encouraged to agree bilateral action among themselves, such as tax information exchange agreements.
The forum also agreed that an OECD blacklist of so-called tax havens issued in 2000 – and which included Jersey – should ‘be seen in its historical context’.
