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REVIEW OF ERD MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE PLAN
1. A meeting was held in the FCO on Wednesday, 11 January to review progress in implementing ERD's workplan on Mutual Legal Assistance.
Present were:
C JB White, Chairman, ERD
R Street, ERD
G Brown, ERD
J Potts, Home Office
P Reagan, Home Office
P Edwards, Home Office
A Cogbill, Home Office
S Wesley, HM Customs
Mrs Manderson-Jones, HM Customs
Mr Minter, NCAD
Det Insp Jones, NDIU
Det Ch Supt Blackburn, NDIU W Welch, NDIU
2. Review of action over the last 3 months
Mr White began by reviewing work over the last three months: he distinguished between talks/negotiations/meetings and a retrospective look at the actions planned for the period at the last meeting. The main points to emerge from discussion
were:
a)
Talks/Negotiations/Meetings
i)
The FCO/Home Office visit to South East Asia had largely been a success. Mr Street reported that although Singapore had initially been against DTOA-type legislation (because of their banking secrecy laws and desire to protect their offshore business), actions since the visit had done much to persuade the Singapore authorities of the merit of our approach. Critical had been the provision of evidence of money laundering in Singapore and hard lobbying of officials at every opportunity after the visit. The campaign appears to have worked. We need however, to keep up the pressure. Hong Kong legislation is progressing and may be introduced by April. We are close to signing an agreement with Malaysia Lord Ferrers had made a joint announcement with the Malaysians about our intent to conclude a reciprocal agreement at the UN Convention in Vienna.
ii) Mr White asked for views about the merits of the "sweep" of countries approach, now there had been two - in SE Asia and the Caribbean. It was generally agreed that this was an effective way of negotiating, provided
GB LAIK
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