Representatives of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will be meeting in Paris this week to discuss a plan to eradicate unfair tax competition between members, including offshore jurisdictions like Bermuda.

This will be the first meeting of a newly-created forum between government officials, business representatives and members of the OECD's advisory council to tackle the issue of tax competition.

The forum plans to issue a list of tax havens by October, 1999. According to Insurance Day newspaper, member states and places deemed to be tax havens will have two years to review their legislation according to OECD guidelines.

The OECD will then give the jurisdictions a further three years to remove what it considers as "harmful tax practices''. The proposed deadline is April, 2005.

Last month Bermuda submitted a document giving reasons why it should be excluded from the OECD hit list. The OECD has identified two main situations in which it would consider a country to be a tax haven and therefore subject to unstated measures against it.

The first targets will be countries which generally impose no or only nominal tax on income from financial and other service activities. Other targets will be countries with a system that specifically excludes the international sector from taxation.

Bermuda is arguing it should be excluded from the OECD target list as the Island's local and international businesses pay essentially the same levels of taxes.

BUSINESS BUC