After
the sobering & upsetting US elections, with foreign adventures gone
bad, & amid signs that America
is "losing its grip on the world's money", a narrow window of opportunity
avails itself for lost sovereignty, fiscal & privacy principles &
rights to be recovered, fortified & implemented also in Swiss-US relations.
Among Swiss lawmakers, political critical mass is obtainable for formulating
& trumping the related signals
urbi et orbi.. And among current
& former key US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, accomodating
echos & implementation measures may be put into place before the 2008
presidential elections. Essentially on 3 conditions:
1.
Unless you're prepared to by-pass or overrule the official policy holders
here & there: twist their arms - even if it's that of a lady - in order
for them to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution.
2.
Participate in a credible anti-terrorism monitoring system involving
your bank's tresors.
3.
Be prepared to support these special efforts with adequate coordination,
feedback & funds.
A
Currently, with regard to law novels affecting Swiss-US banking relations,
the Swiss legislative pipeline contains at least three official projects
which avail themselves for combining and stream-lining:
1.
The
National Council's Law Commission approved - with 12 to 6 votes,
with 2 abstentions and three
minority proposals - [and in June the Senate is scheduled to approve]
the replacement of the secret administrative"Operative
Working Arrangement" of September 4, 2002 with the Accord
Suisse-Etats-Unis d’Amérique du 12 juillet 06 concernant "la
constitution d’équipes communes d’enquête pour lutter contre
le terrorisme et son financement"
(www.admin.ch/ch/f/ff/2006/7383.pdf; message
06.069 du 6 sep 06: .../ch/f/ff/2006/7373.pdf). The new treaty would
continue to provide, in Switzerland, for US police personnel to directly
"review" and "analyse" notably documents covered by Swiss secrecy protections
and extracted from banks, fiduciaries, etc. - even under "false
flag" & totally unfounded claims, i.e. outside of treaty-based,
constitutional & legal protections against privacy abuses. Instead
- and fully compatible with our national interests of a self-respecting
sovereign state - we could stop drifting by retaking the initiative
with discreet
& effective anti-terrorism measures of our own.
2. On November 27/28, 2006, the National Council's
Economic and Tax Commission WAK continued consideration
of the financial market surveillance law FINMAG. It approved most of
it but has remained open for further changes if properly advised. Notably
on our proposals for significant
improvements regarding FINMAG's objectives, mandates & legal assistance
provisions (www.solami.com/FINMAG.htm). This appears indicated the more
so as foreign investors' confidence in the Swiss legal system continues
to be undermined by alarming legal assistance practices & court
decisions which the PUK decried already in 1989 as "servile"
("willfährig";
see:
"Rechtshilfe
oder Unrechtsbeihilfe", .../rechtsbeihilfe.htm, BGE
1A.99/2006, & critiques by Peter
Popp, Dominique
Poncet & Vincent Solari, and Martin
Schubarth). Moreover, the SEC reportedly continues to blackmail
American branches of Swiss banks
into short-cutting treaty procedures. It is thus urgent to add a
more effective protective layer against unwarranted disclosure of confidential
bank client information, as was the purpose of the 1996 abandoned Consultative
Commission. As suggested
by Professor Schubarth, the FINMA might also be entrusted with that
key
oversight role. However, lawmakers are not here to do the bidding of
subjects who are either unwilling or unable to competently define and defend
their legitimate interests. Thus, in the absence of clear, timely, and
determined signals from those mostly concerned in the financial community,
even the most helpful, practical and indicated text improvements are not
likely to attract the indispensable critical mass among divers lawmakers.
Which holds true even if the lawmakers' original intent & purpose,
as expressed in valid treaties, constitutional norms and legal provisions,
is manifestly neglected or violated by both the Federal Administration
and our Courts (.../autogoal.htm).
3. On July 31, 2006, the Federal Council accepted
the WAK
motion 06.3005 "Entraide administrative et judiciaire. Exigences
et principe de la double incrimination" which - notwithstanding
its shortcomings - was introduced as a substitute for the SVP's
cantonal and federal initiatives for Swiss bank secrecy to be enshrined
in the Swiss Consitution (.../eigentum.htm)
B
"Authoritative" - and desinterested? - claims to the contrary notwithstanding,
the still rising FATF/GAFI
problématique (.../GAFI.htm) is all but inevitable,
as demonstrated before ("OECD
mission-creep & Piper of Hamelin bureaucratic lawmaking", .../oecdmandate.htm).
Now
is the time to stop lamenting, to show vision & leadership, and
to seek effective alliances with US & other lawmakers - beyond those
already on bord (Richard Rahn, Dan Mitchell, Phil Gramm, etc.). With the
aim of turning off notably the US money spigot on the OECD until this &
other anti-sovereignty, anti-privacy & anti-market bureaucratic
cancers are either brought in line with OECD's statute & turned into
a formal treaty or sent to the wastebin of history. Until then, Switzerland
has every interest to competently play its significant cards at the OECD
Council of Ministers, but not to strengthen this aberration by attenting
FATF's meetings with more than a simple observer.
C
For those not familiar with our successes in dealing with our US &
French friends & OECD adversaries,
remember our US court-induced stop of the RJR-Nabisco LBO until the Swiss
bonds were fully securised, the CH/F tax treaty supported by SBA, Vorort,
etc. but thrown onto the waste heap of history by Parliament as "diplomatic
treason", and the cold-feet-induced non-derailment of the QI
aberration. Also: "How
not to react to US pressures on Bank Secrecy, Iran, Cuba, etc."
(.../diamantball.htm ¦ .../swissbanks.htm
¦ .../capitalism.htm)!