The statement was utter demagogy. The OECD initiative is not about harmonization but about curbing tax evasion. The Euro's are most worried about their citizens shifting financial assets into places where they can't be tracked by the tax authorities. The Swiss are major culprits, what with bank secrecy laws.
Transfer pricing is not a major dimension in this context. That's not evasion, it's avoidance. Politically the issue is the facilitation of illegality by the WH, which parallels the shift of the IRS audits away from upper-income persons and towards EITC claimants. The fact that the tax havens also host drug money is just icing on the cake. As usual the Dems were asleep at the switch.
mbs
The US has just insulted other capitalist governments by walking out of the attempt by the OECD to control tax havens, declaring defiantly (which it was not been asked to endorse anyway) "The United States does not support efforts to dictate to any country what its own tax rates or tax system should be and will not participate in any initiative to harmonize world tax systems." ========= This is interesting. Do you have more info? The US is in a pickle over tax havens due to transfer pricing, drug money laundering from Latin America/Southern US etc. and tax breaks for exporters a la WTO. Putting an end to tax arbitrage by US MNC's is an enormous challenge so any info from Europe would be greatly appreciated. Ian