In a rare assault on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the body responsible for enforcing tax transparency standards, Barbados has insisted it won’t "roll over and play dead"
as the Organization attempts to blacklist the territory as 'uncooperative.'
The territory’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler
assured business leaders at the Barbados International Business Association’s
luncheon, that the government intended to defend the island’s reputation
vigorously .
In giving an update on the situation, the Finance Minister said the latest
situation in the OECD, was not only being led by the French and Germans, but was
"implicitly sanctioned by others in the G20 - some of whom were among the
island's long-standing partners, [who are also party to] a campaign to shut
Barbados down as an international tax jurisdiction.”
Asserting that the island's response would be swift and assertive, Sinckler
disclosed that a letter had already been drafted to the British government that
outlined the island's disappointment with the stance being taken by that country's
government and the OECD, on these matters.
"There are people, countries if you will, in the international community,
who want to shut Barbados down as an international tax jurisdiction. The constant
changing of the goal post in relation to standards on transparency and the exchange
of information with respect to the OECD, is as unwarranted as is the criteria
and justification for the selection of Barbados from among hundreds of countries
to be on a list of about 62 tax jurisdictions [that have been deemed to have]
the potential to disrupt the international financial system," Sinckler
said at the meet.
He said as part of government efforts, Barbados diplomats would meet bilaterally
and plurilaterally with countries including G7 and G20 members.
Sinckler explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been pressed into
action on the issue at the diplomatic level, and would be issuing diplomatic
notes to those countries that were sympathetic to Barbados's plan "to build a coalition of states to resist these latest efforts of the OECD to
challenge the good name of countries that are otherwise cooperating on international
tax issues.”
“It is the alliances we build that
will serve to protect and enhance Barbados's reputation as a high-quality, open
and well-regulated tax jurisdiction,” he said.
The Minister also questioned
the OECD's motives in the light of the island's active participation in its OECD's Peer
Review Committee and its advocacy of transparency in tax matters.
"What is even more troubling is the premature and unnecessary rush to
judgment by the British tax authorities to place Barbados in the so-called Category
3 group of countries, which includes none less than some of the world's uncooperative
tax havens,” Sinckler concluded.
LAWANDTAX-NEWS.COM
