The OECD has made available the statistics for 2011 in respect of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) in its member countries. The statistics were provided to the OECD by member countries and by Argentina and South Africa which are not currently member states of the OECD. The OECD’s stated objective in collecting and publishing these statistics is to improve the timeliness of completing MAP cases and to improve the transparency of the procedure.
The data shows that 1,624 new MAP cases were initiated in the OECD member countries in 2011. The statistics reveal that at the end of 2011 there were an aggregate of 3,838 open MAP cases, an increase of 15.3% over the previous year, though cases involving two OECD countries are double-counted in these statistics. Of the open cases, the US had 686 MAP cases open, Germany 702 cases and France 539 MAP cases. Other countries with important MAP activity were Belgium (241 open cases), Canada (225 open cases), Switzerland (187 open MAP cases), Sweden (163 open cases) and the UK (133 open cases).
For the OECD countries which provided the relevant data the average time required for completing a MAP process with other OECD countries was 25.39 months in 2011. The equivalent time for 2010 was 27.30 months, but for 2009 and the three earlier years the average time required was less than 23 months.
