The St. Lucia-based Caribbean Association of Banks Inc. (CAB) is calling on regional governments to “carefully assess the deficiencies” identified by the European Union for the reasons behind its decision to rate a number of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries as tax havens.
In a statement, CAB said it is “deeply concerned” at the recent inclusion of Caribbean territories on the European Union Commission’s (EU) list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
It said the list names countries which have not displayed sufficient commitment to the tax standards identified by the EU.
Caribbean nations on black list
The EU finance ministers earlier this month named The Bahamas as well as U.S. Virgin Islands to its blacklist of tax havens, saying they had also decided to remove Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and St. Lucia, from an earlier list that had also included American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago. The EU had earlier removed Barbados and Grenada from the list.
The EU finance ministers have also decided to add Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda to a so-called grey list of jurisdictions which do not respect EU anti-tax avoidance standards but have committed to change their practices.
The blacklist was set up in December, but Caribbean islands hit by hurricanes last year were given more time to adapt their tax practices to EU requests.
Meet expeditiously
Earlier this month, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders who met in Haiti for the 29th inter-sessional summit, called on their finance ministers and central bank governors of the region to meet “expeditiously” to consider new proposals as regional governments continue to react to decisions by Europe in listing some countries as tax havens.
In its statement, the CAB said that blacklisting has debilitating effects on Caribbean economies, specifically since it “exacerbates the perception of our region as ‘high risk’ and consequently, negatively affects; the risk profile of regional financial institutions and the willingness of correspondent banks to do business with them 9and) It severely reduces critically-needed development funding from the EU and limits the ability of Caribbean territories to pursue their development goals.”
 is calling on regional governments to “carefully assess the deficiencies” identified by the European Union for the reasons behind its decision to rate a number of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries as tax havens.){kind=link}