Center for Freedom and Prosperity
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
202-285-0244
www.freedomandprosperity.org
OECD Tries to Suppress Dissenting Views
(Mexico City, Mexico. Tuesday, September 1, 2009. 4:00 p.m.) The bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are trying to suppress dissenting voices according to free-market activists who have traveled to Mexico City to defend tax competition, fiscal sovereignty, and financial privacy at the Global Tax Forum.
The harassment began in Cabo, the original venue for the conference. Center for Freedom and Prosperity President Andy Quinlan and Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute made reservations at the hotel where the conference was scheduled to take place. But last Friday, the reservations were canceled, supposedly because the OECD had reserved the entire hotel. Mitchell remarked that, “This was an extraordinary step for the OECD to take in hopes of insulating delegates from free market views.” That issue became moot, however, when the conference was suddenly moved to a hotel in Mexico City to avoid a hurricane.
Today’s episode was far more disturbing. OECD officials this afternoon tried to have Quinlan and Mitchell (who are guests at the Mexico City hotel) removed from a public lobby outside the meeting venue. An OECD security official came up to Dan Mitchell and asserted that CF&P officials had to leave the lobby – even though it also serves as entrance to a restaurant and business center. Mitchell refused and the OECD official backed down, perhaps because the ejection attempt was witnessed by a member of the press who was covering the event. “For a group that ostensibly has transparency as one of its goals, the OECD’s hypocrisy is remarkable,” said Quinlan. “Not only do they refuse to allow taxpayers to observe their events, they don’t even want them anywhere in the immediate vicinity.”
Quinlan and Mitchell will be at the Forum through September 2 and available as a sounding board and a source of strategic advice for low-tax jurisdictions.
Much of the information shared by CF&P at the forum is discussed in the Strategic Memo linked below:
CF&P Strategic Memorandum: Protecting Good Tax Policy
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/memos/m08-27-09/m08-27-09.shtml
For additional comments:
Andrew Quinlan can be reached at 202-285-0244, andy@freedomandprosperity.org
Dan Mitchell can be reached at 202-218-4615, dmitchell@cato.org
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