CARICOM rejects EU's tax haven blacklisting

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) issued a statement on Thursday to "strongly" oppose a recent blacklisting of its members as "non-cooperative" tax jurisdictions by the European Union (EU).

The list published last week named 14 Caribbean states and territories, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis, Anguilla, Bermuda, and British Virgin Islands, among 30 worst tax havens in the world.

The list drew immediate fires from several Caribbean leaders and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They criticized it as unjust and groundless.

In Thursday's statement, the CARICOM condemned the EU's decision as "patently false," considering "the continued efforts made by member states to comply with the onerous and unilateral regulatory measures put forward by the OECD which sets international standards on tax cooperation."

The regional bloc cited the OECD's response on this matter, saying that "it considers most of the countries listed as largely compliant in the area of tax information sharing" and "there is nothing more than they can do in order to be considered as cooperative."

"The Caribbean Community, for which financial services are of vital economic importance, is forced to express its deep disappointment and grave concern at the conduct of the EU on this matter," it stated.

In response, the EU explained that the list was not its new assessment of tax havens, but a result of its member states' individual assessments.

"If more than 10 EU member states regard a non-EU country as 'uncooperative' in tax questions, this country automatically ends up on a list of 30 'uncooperative' states that was published last week," said Mikael Barfod, head of the EU mission to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Endi