The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) gave Uruguay the thumbs up in December, moving it out of its grey list of countries failing to meet its tax transparency standards, and into the white list. The country’s lawyers breathed a collective sigh of relief, albeit accompanied by a measure of doubt.
According to Ferrere Abogados senior associate Isabel Laventure, although the OECD does not impose sanctions for countries in its grey list, it was nevertheless considered something of a national embarrassment. “What worked here was the strategy of peer pressure, and naming and shaming. Uruguay was extremely sensitive to being included on the shaming list, so being on it was a problem for us regardless of the practical applications,” she says.