The 1996 Lyon Summit of the OECD member states launched an initiative aimed at limiting certain types of tax competition which were deemed contrary to the interests of the world’s most developed countries. Although there was little, if any, published evidence that tax competition was in fact adversely affecting, or indeed was likely to adversely affect, the economies of the OECD member states,4 the concluding communiqué of the Heads of State urged the OECD to develop pre-emptive measures to address any potential or perceived threats of tax competition to the interests of the member countries and to report back in 1998.