Let's Hear It For The Rainbow Tour

Politico

The Obama administration is touting the president’s role in brokering a compromise between the French and the Chinese ...

... to make public a list of those countries that serve as tax havens.

During an afternoon session of the G-20, Obama took aside French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chinese President Hu Jintao, first separately and then together, to secure tax haven language in the G-20 communiqué, according to a senior administration official who recounted the scene to reporters and cast it as pivotal to reaching an agreement on the larger, nine-page document.

The language may be easily missed in glancing through the document but it emerged as the chief stumbling block to issuing the communiqué.

“We note that the [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of tax information,” it reads.

The French have pushed for more transparency in identifying those jurisdictions in violation of tax standards while the Chinese have stoutly refused to recognize such a list.

Sarkozy wanted a stronger endorsement of the OECD list while Hu didn’t want to acknowledge it all. The Obama compromise language was to “note” the information.

“I’d suggest we might still be there had he not done this,” said the administration official who briefed White House reporters.