12 Jul 2017

Nauru gets an OECD upgrade

2:10 pm on 12 July 2017

The OECD has upgraded its rating of Nauru's standards of tax transparency.

The Parliament building in Nauru.

The parliament building in Nauru. Photo: Supplied/ @ChrisTrott

This follows its earlier listing among 14 countries that failed to show they complied with international tax transparency standards.

The OECD put the countries through a fast track process and Nauru was given a "largely compliant" rating.

Nauru's Minister for Finance David Adeang said Nauru had now formally committed to the Automatic Exchange of Information on tax matters.

He said the island was dedicated to implementing measures to enable it to join the global tax community as well as combating tax evasion, money laundering and terrorism funding.

In 2003, the OECD took Nauru off its blacklist of renegade tax havens.

Nauru had been accused by the US of ignoring laundering through its banks of billions of ill-gotten funds that were spirited out of Russia.

Meanwhile, a peer review of gender and human rights policies and programmes is being conducted in Nauru this week.

It is the first of a Pacific series by the European Union and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

The second peer review happens in Vanuatu later this month.

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