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licensing might soon be introduced as a means of generating revenue. Miss Anderson said that the Falklands similarly only had one bank. There seemed no threat of a stampede. However, legislation would soon be passed vesting the licensing authority in the Governor.
7. Mr Moody referred to the current pressure on Gibraltar to join the OECD. Apparently the US had already investigated the question of membership for the US Virgin Islands. Legal Advisers had
We
counselled that it would be difficult to extend membership to DTs. Mr Gibby replied that it had taken two years to establish that the OECD Convention did not apply to Gibraltar. No DT other than Gibraltar had expressed a wish to join, though the Channel Islands had shown interest. There were essentially three problems here.
needed to explore the procedure for membership and its implications. We should analyse the benefits of membership for DTs; these were
currently not clear. We should also take account of the interests of the member countries. Mr Gibby undertook to look into these
matters in time for the September DTLG meeting.
Item 3
Constitutional matters
8.
Mr Wallace introduced his paper (copy attached). He explained
that the paper was most relevant to the DTs for which WIAD was responsible. It did not address the question of whether
constitutional advance should be permitted in those Territories
whose constitutional structure was least developed (eg Caymans) to
enable them to catch up. The 1987 Policy Review had not been clear
on this latter point. Mr Wallace's personal view was that
constitutional advance should be permitted in such cases as long as
it fell short of encroaching on normal reserved powers. Paragraph 2
of his paper addressed the difficulties of implementing the 1987
Policy Review line. Paragraph 3 set out the minimum reserved powers
which HMG must retain. The survey of DT Constitutions, referred in
paragraph 4(i) should include a review of financial provisions.
9. Mr Moody expressed his personal view that in Gibraltar's case,
the reserved powers were now meaningless and seen by the Territory's
government as a hollow threat. Even if a Governor chose to resort
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