Tax-haven problem not in the Carib - former diplomat

A former Caribbean diplomat is urging regional countries to adopt a common position in their response to allegations by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that at least three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries were operating as tax havens.

Sir Ronald Sanders, the former Antigua and Barbuda ambassador, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that it was important for the region to speak with one voice on the issue and accused the Organisation of Economic Development (OECD) of seeking to impose its will on small developing nations.

Last week, Sarkozy, at the end of the G20 summit in France, named 11 countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados, as tax havens for failing to meet transparency standards.

But Sir Ronald said the region should explore the possibility of holding discussions with like-minded countries such as Singapore "and other countries that are not OECD countries and talk to them about how collectively we could resist that.

"They (OECD) have no right to do it and we have no obligation to follow them, but we are doing, and if we continue to do it one by one, we will not win, and the answer to Sarkozy should not come just from Barbados, Antigua and Trinidad, it should come from CARICOM," he told CMC.

Sir Ronald said that he was not surprised that Sarkozy, like a previous French president, was ill-informed about the issue, noting that the real intent of the French government is to close down tax centres around the world.

"... They ignore reality. The OECD has imposed, and I say imposed, because that is what they have done, [imposed] rules and regulations on the rest of the world about tax and about what they call tax havens and ignoring countries that are low-tax countries and not tax havens.

"The problem is not in the Caribbean," he added.