Mr. Philip Kermode:

The question one has to ask is whether we can be surprised that there are these issues of aggressive tax planning in a situation where tax systems are so different and where some jurisdictions actually promote the use of particular forms of tax incentive with the objective of moving profits from other jurisdictions. There is a distinction between the question of localisation of genuine business and the question of taking profits from other businesses, that is, other jurisdictions, and taking them through jurisdictions to tax havens so that there is a substantial difference in the way these are seen. To return to the question, the United States obviously has to take measures, if it wishes, to deal with what it would see as aggressive tax planning. Therein, one sees a large part of the problem, that what is aggressive tax planning in one jurisdiction may not necessarily be considered for the moment as being in the other and it requires a sea-change in the way people think of international taxation, away from the idea of a simple bilateral bargaining situation to a more multilateral approach which means people have common standards.