OECD blacklist - empty?

The OECD blacklist which we've recently been writing irritably about is now empty, new reports suggest. According to Reuters:

"The OECD said on Tuesday that the four countries on a tax haven blacklist, published as part of agreements at last week's G20 summit, have committed to meeting international standards and will be removed form the list."

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría proclaimed:

"This very important move by so many jurisdictions...is one of the first deliverables of the G20 meeting."

Problem solved? Er . . . no.

While we can give the OECD list approach credit for putting pressure to sign up to OECD standards, the speed and ease with which this has happened also gives an indication how unthreatening the OECD standards must be if so many jurisdictions can accept them so fast. As we've noted, we think the OECD standards - while representing a modest but not meaningless advance for some countries which had previously rejected them - are hopelessly inadequate. Read more (and please send in your comments) here.