Samoa

Territory added to EU ‘grey list’

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:50:01 +0000

Territory added to EU ‘grey list’

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:50

Thursday, March 17, 2022

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Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Territory added to EU ‘grey list’

The Virgin Islands has been added to the European Union’s “grey list” along with nine other jurisdictions in the Caribbean and elsewhere, the EU Council announced after its meeting on Feb. 24.

Besides the VI, the EU added the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Israel, Montserrat, Russia, Tunisia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Vietnam, bringing the total list up to 25 jurisdictions.

Although the inclusion does not mean that any penalties or sanctions will be levied against the territory, according to the EU, the move represents a significant setback after the territory rushed through economic substance legislation at the end of 2019 in order to meet EU requirements on tax reform.

In a Feb. 24 press release, the EU Council said that the list reflects “ongoing EU cooperation with its international partners and the commitments of these countries to reform their legislation to adhere to agreed tax good governance standards.”

The countries on the grey list are working toward meeting the EU’s tax standards, the release stated.

According to the EU, criteria for the list cover tax transparency, fair taxation and preventing tax base erosion and profit shifting. The organisation called implementation of the list a “dynamic process,” and noted that the next revision is scheduled for October of this year.

Anguilla, Botswana, Costa Rica, Dominica, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Qatar, the Seychelles, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay were previously added and remain on the grey list.

The blacklist, which remained unchanged after last month’s announcement, currently includes American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States Virgin Islands, and Vanuatu.

VI response

At a press conference late last month, Premier Andrew Fahie urged onlookers not to view the move as a censure of the territory.

He said the grey-listing meant the VI has “substantially met all international tax standards set out by the EU, but that ongoing improvements are being made to implementing tax good governance.”

As a result, he said, it has been grey-listed while it implements policies and procedures in the territory’s Country-by-Country Reporting framework.

“No defensive measures flow from being on such list and the BVI is still a cooperative jurisdiction,” he said. “Once the BVI meets these commitments, it will be removed from the annex.”

He added that the territory “takes its international obligations seriously” and had already been finalising the necessary steps to ensure successful implementation of the recommendations.

This week, BVI Finance CEO Elise Donovan directed queries to the Premier’s Office. Director of Communications Dr. Arliene Penn said, “BVI’s addition to EU’s Annex II is a positive rating for us because it acknowledges that BVI is a cooperative jurisdiction that has implemented measures (in the case of the Country-by-Country Reporting) in accordance with the high international standards prescribed. The BVI remains highly committed to the transparency and international cooperation agenda.”

The EU has hinted for some time that it would seek to modify its requirements for the list, the latest iteration of which was announced last October.

In February 2021, the European parliament passed a resolution calling for a measure that would automatically blacklist British territories like the VI, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands that have a zero percent corporate tax rate — and that now have a weakened voice in the EU in the wake of the United Kingdom’s split from the organisation.

The resolution did not mention the VI at the time, but it came before the revelation that nearly two-thirds of companies named in the far-reaching Pandora Papers investigation last year were based in the VI.

Panama, which is already on the EU blacklist, was host to the second highest number.

World response

Meanwhile, the EU Observer reported late last month that tax-reform campaigners are already applauding the news.

Chiara Putaturo, a campaigner with the non-profit Oxfam, praised the move, but complained that the Cayman Islands was not included.

“If the [new] grey-listing … is confirmed, we will see some real tax havens finally at risk to be blacklisted [in the future],” she said. “However, there are still other tax havens that are left off the hook, … such as the Cayman Islands, because the criteria remain weak.”

History

As in other OTs, leaders in the VI have long criticised the EU’s blacklists as arbitrary and misleading, maintaining that the territory’s financial services industry is tightly regulated in keeping with international standards.

Nevertheless, the VI was grey-listed along with other jurisdictions in 2017. In March 2018, the EU concluded that the VI, the Bahamas and Cayman needed further technical guidance from the EU and had until the end of 2019 to adapt local legislation, which resulted in the Economic Substance Act being rushed through the House of Assembly in late 2018.

Thanks to this move, the VI was white-listed, alongside 16 other jurisdictions, in February 2020.

The post Territory added to EU ‘grey list’ first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

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Sue over blacklist, says economist

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:40:01 +0000

Sue over blacklist, says economist

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:40

Thursday, April 28, 2022

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Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

Sue over blacklist, says economist

Caribbean countries that live in fear of being blacklisted by the European Union should band together and take legal action, according to Barbados-based economist and Caribbean policy expert Marla Dukharan.

“I felt like there should be some legal recourse that should be pursued collectively,” Ms. Dukharan said on Feb. 23 on the regional livestreamed show “Territories Talk,” hosted by Shaina Smith-Archer, chairwoman of the BVI Chamber of Commerce and Hotel Association.

The EU blacklist often comes under fire in the VI for being a moving target.

Ms. Dukharan said it is also unfair. EU member states such as the Netherlands and Ireland are “well known for their extensive money laundering and tax evading activities,” but have never been included on any EU blacklist, she said.

To her, this suggests Eurocentrism or even racism, and perhaps an effort to undermine countries that are “eating part of their pie,” she said of the EU.

Grey-listed

In February, the territory was added to the EU’s “grey list,” along with nine other jurisdictions in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Besides the VI, the EU added the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Israel, Montserrat, Russia, Tunisia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Vietnam, bringing the total on the list up to 25 jurisdictions.

Although the February inclusion does not mean that any penalties or sanctions will be levied against the territory, the move represents a significant setback after the VI rushed through economic substance legislation at the end of 2019 in order to meet EU requirements on tax reform.

The standards for inclusion on the EU lists have frequently changed, and Ms. Dukharan pointed out that the European Parliament itself has noted problems with the selection process.

In 2021, the legislative body proposed that the tax regimes of EU member states be scrutinised along with the rest of the world and subject to blacklisting if they don’t measure up.

“That tells you that you have a legal leg to stand on, because they, the policymakers, have acknowledged that we are not applying our own standards to our own member states, and that’s not fair,” she said. “Why is it that our countries have not come together, found a law firm that will represent us collectively, and taken them to court over this action?”

Fighting back

She added that even a statement from the Caribbean Community condemning the actions of the EU is simply “not strong enough.”

“I think if all of the countries came together from the Pacific and the Caribbean and agitated and protested, I think that there is a chance,” she said. “For example, if you appeal to the United Nations, you appeal to the World Trade Organisation, somebody is going to hear you. But when each individual little tiny micro state appeals individually, it is just white noise.”

She also recommended that countries that object to the blacklist expel EU ambassadors.

“The second thing I think we need to do is take diplomatic action,” she said.

With changing criteria, she noted, even countries that have satisfied the Financial Action Task Force and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standards still run the risk of being blacklisted.

“But we don’t have the courage to do these things because we are small and we are insecure maybe,” she said.

Current list

In a Feb. 24 press release, the EU Council said that the grey list reflects “ongoing EU cooperation with its international partners and the commitments of these countries to reform their legislation to adhere to agreed tax good governance standards.”

The countries on the grey list are working toward meeting the EU’s tax standards, the release stated.

According to the EU, criteriafor the list cover tax transparency, fair taxation and preventing tax base erosion and profit shifting. The next revision is scheduled for October.

Anguilla, Botswana, Costa Rica, Dominica, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, North Macedonia, Qatar, the Seychelles, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay were previously added and remain on the grey list.

The blacklist for “non-cooperative” tax jurisdictions, which remained unchanged after the February announcement, currently includes American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States VI, and Vanuatu.

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SVG not on verge of economic collapse – Finance Minister

admin — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 04:10:01 +0000

SVG not on verge of economic collapse – Finance Minister

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admin Sat, 12/11/2021 - 04:10

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

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Searchlight

Original Article

SVG not on verge of economic collapse – Finance Minister

Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves says a December 2 Bloomberg News Wire report falsely suggests that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says this country is on the brink of ‘economic collapse’.

“Nowhere in the IMF blog post cited by Bloomberg does IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva mention SVG. Not once; look it up,” Gonsalves commented to SEARCHLIGHT on Monday.

The comment was in reference to an article on BNN Bloomberg written by Ana Monteiro with the headline, “IMF Warns of Economic Collapse in Poor Nations Without Debt Fix.”

Part of the article says an IMF official commented that, “With the Group of 20’s debt-service suspension initiative expiring at the end of the year and interest rates poised to rise, low-income countries will find it increasingly difficult to service their debts.”

The article goes on to say, “We may see economic collapse in some countries unless G-20 creditors agree to accelerate debt restructurings and suspend debt service while the restructurings are being negotiated” and “Covid-19 has dealt a major blow to world’s poorest countries, causing a recession that could push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty”, according to the World Bank. The challenges are mounting with the discovery of the omicron variant, which is driving a new wave of infections.

SVG is then listed as being “At Risk”.

But Gonsalves said the article cited a separate World Bank listing of selected countries that may be at risk of “debt distress” and falsely linked that to ‘economic collapse.’

“If a country is in debt distress, which SVG is not, it may mean that some debts could have to be restructured. Restructuring a debt is in no way connected to an economic collapse. Further, there are neighbouring islands that the World Bank has determined to be firmly in debt distress already and they haven’t done any restructuring, much less collapsed,” Gonsalves argued.

He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and the volcanic eruptions earlier this year have caused the economy of St. Vincent and Grenadines (SVG),to shrink which automatically increases the ratio of debt to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We have also taken on more debt to deal with the humanitarian challenges of the volcano, albeit low interest, long term debt. Our construction of a modern port facility in Kingstown will also raise our debt profile in the short term,” Gonsalves further explained.

He added that the worsening debt to GDP profiles as a result of COVID-19 is not unique to SVG, as Debt to GDP worsened in every OECS member state over the last two years.

“In that regard, I fully agree with the IMF and Kristalina Georgieva that the developed world could and should do more to offer debt relief to vulnerable countries. In CARICOM, prime Ministers Mia Mottley and Gaston Browne have been leading this advocacy. COVID and climate change have caused economic challenges unrelated to our own internal fiscal management, and we would welcome any initiatives to reduce that burden,” the finance minister told SEARCHLIGHT.

He added, “but we are far, far away from anything resembling an economic collapse. SVG has always paid its debts and will continue to do so. We have not even seen it necessary to enter an IMF structural adjustment programme, one of the few in CARICOM to avoid that fate.”

The finance minister said the overwhelming bulk of the country’s debt is low interest, long term, concessionary debt from the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the European Union (EU), “and friends like Taiwan or Venezuela.”

“This debt is manageable,” he stressed whole noting that SVG welcomes the IMF’s call for debt relief to vulnerable countries and the government has been advocating that for a while.

“But there is absolutely no truth in the Bloomberg article’s misleading connection between Ms. Georgieva’s blog post and the assumption that we are on the brink of economic collapse. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
On December 2, an article on the IMFBlog written by Kristalina Georgieva and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu said that despite significant relief measures brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, about 60 percent of low-income countries are at high risk or already in debt distress.

“In 2015 that number was below 30 percent,” the article said.

Reports show that SVG is listed for high risk of external debt distress and overall debt distress. The listing appears in the latest publicly available Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) issued under the Joint Bank-Fund Debt Sustainability Framework for low income countries (LIC-DSF).

Grenada is also on that list but noted to already be in distress.

Minister Gonsalves further stated that having a risk of debt distress does not mean economic collapse.

Island nations also listed as having high risk of overall debt distress are Haiti, Kiribati, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Caribbean

News

Youth – Education and Innovation

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 02:50:01 +0000

Youth – Education and Innovation

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admin Sat, 10/09/2021 - 02:50

Monday, October 4, 2021

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Business | NOW Grenada

Original Article

Youth – Education and Innovation

by Tricia Simon

Innovation is coined as a new method, idea or product but it is important to note that innovation is cumulative in that it builds on prior technology centered around education – allu weh we dey and wey we goin!

Innovation is driven by culture and the ideas of human capital. Today, when we think of innovation we think of Europe, the United States, Japan and now China. There was a time when Arabs and Africans were far advanced civilisations, so societies do rise and fall. The World Bank in regards to China stated, “Since China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged almost 10% a year, and more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty. There has also been significant improvements in access to health, education, and other services over the same period.”

The United States of American that we know today is said to be created by pilgrims aka refugees fleeing religious persecution in England and started off with humble beginnings (but that is for another article). They brought with them their culture and technology and adopted some of the Native Indian culture and technology who were already present. Today, the United States of America is centred around innovation and the education of its human capital at its core, both in the foreign policy of the US Department of State and its other branches which focuses on internal aspects of innovation. Both China and the US are seen as behemoths in regards to strategic development and embody innovation and human capital as key tenets of their culture. So allu wey we dey an wey we goin?

Today, there are several areas for innovation which includes Personalised medicine, Distributed energy (DE), Pervasive computing, Nanomaterials, Biomarkers for health, Advanced manufacturing, Biofuels, Universal water, Carbon management, Engineered agriculture, Security and tracking and Advanced transportation. With this we turn to the UN Sustainable Development Goals which are related to the aforementioned; no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals. In Grenada, the areas of youth development can be looked at through the lens of remote working in technology jobs and agriculture.

Members of our diaspora are now in key positions to provide assistance in developing Grenada. Darren Blake who is a descendent of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique and an IT manager at the UK University of Northampton said what is required is “a process or system which allows you to open the doors to IT, understand IT and upskill the youth population, this makes the workforce agile and employable as we are now part of a global market. Our biggest commodity is our people and if we train them adequately the sky is the limit.” We need to be strategic and plan as the computer and internet are the drivers of our modern society. At present, we are net importers of technology – we import weed eaters (because ah see ah lot ah dem young fellas in de area wid one on dey shoulder) and they use it on a daily basis. Now, have we thought about taking it apart and improving on the technology as opposed to only basic repairs? I see the lawns littered with the plastic string – can our youths make a stronger string, recycle the string, make them less noisy, create a shield to prevent the material from flying in the air, can they be created to use kinetic energy as opposed to gasoline? Look at the “Cane Juice Man”, he made his own machine and now makes a very good living using his machine. Watch, allu use YouTube to gain knowledge, all dem people allu look at have dey money already, so time to make yours.

Caribbean

Planning Minister pledges Sierra Leone’s commitment to climate change

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 06:10:01 +0000

Planning Minister pledges Sierra Leone’s commitment to climate change admin Sun, 07/25/2021 - 06:10

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Original Publisher

Local – Sierra Leone Concord Times

Original Article

Planning Minister pledges Sierra Leone’s commitment to climate change

July 13, 2021

By Betty Milton, Information Attaché Brussels, Belgium

During the 112th session of Council of Ministers of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Dr Francis Kai-kai pledged Sierra Leone’s commitment to the climate change.

This session was held virtually for three days with the Sierra Leone delegation led by the Minister of Planning and Economic Development and was attended by the Sierra Leone Ambassador to Belgium, H.E Samuel Tamba Musa and Mr. Saifu George, First Secretary in the Embassy.

The Session considered the report of the Secretary-General of the OACPS and the report of the OACPS Committee of Ambassadors submitted to the Council of Ministers for adoption.

Key areas the Minister highlighted in an interview after the meeting was that of climate change, biodiversity and the resolution of the new name for the new partnership agreement which is the Samoa Agreement which has been endorsed by the Council.

This New Partnership-Agreement was initialled by both the OACPS and the EU in April, 2021 following negotiations by both sides and is to be signed later in 2021 or early 2022 in Samoa following the completion of procedures for approval.As a country where fisheries remain a vibrant sector of the economy, the Minister of Economic Development endorsed the presentation on the state of play of the fisheries negotiations by the Foreign Minister of Jamaica, Kamina Johnson-Smith.

Minister Kai-Kai then committed Sierra Leone to the outcome of the next steps of negotiations on the matter.

During the plenary proceedings relating to the presentation by the Secretary-General of the OACPS strategic plan of the organisation, Dr. Francis Kai-Kai made an intervention on the role of member states in the preparation of the strategic plan. He drew attention to the lessons learned from the European Development Fund (EDF) and counted on the preparedness of member states in terms of the benefits envisaged from the new partnership arrangement with the EU.

On the issue of climate change and climate financing, the Minister said in the interview that “climate change is a universal issue which we have recognized a long time ago” and as a country, he maintained, Sierra was very vulnerable to climate change in relation to some studies which have ranked the country as the third most vulnerable country to the affairs of climate change in the world.

He disclosed that Sierra Leone will continue to prioritize any action that would help mitigate the impact of climate change and the issue of biodiversity which contributes to climate change. He expressed Sierra Leone’s determination to be part of this global momentum to deal with climate change and sustainable development. He expressed the willingness to support any legislation or resolution that would enable regulate the exploitation and ensure the utilization and conservation of our resources.

Another crucial area was one that had to do with the issue of digital connectivity and digital solutions programme to strengthen the resilience of education, health and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises systems to COVID-19 in ACPS countries.

With education being the flagship initiative of this government, Dr Francis Kai-Kai maintained that “we continue to support free, quality education” as according to the Minister, “22% of our national budget goes to this sector and a reasonable one goes to health and that of agriculture”. These are three legs of the flagship programme the Minister emphasized to promote human capital development and which the government remains very supportive of in terms of the resilience of the country to development.

Africa

News

Barbados off EU blacklist

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 16:50:01 +0000

Barbados off EU blacklist

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admin Mon, 02/22/2021 - 16:50

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NationNews Barbados — nationnews.com

Original Article

Barbados off EU blacklist

Barbados has been officially removed from the European Union’s (EU) controversial tax blacklist.

This morning, the EU Council adopted its latest list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes and Barbados was not on it.

Minister of International Business Ronald Toppin confirmed the news and said Government was “very pleased about this”.

There are, however, other Caribbean countries included, with Anguilla and Trinidad and Tobago still the on list, and Dominica a new addition.

The other blacklisted countries are American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Seychelles, United States Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

Barbados was among countries singled out by the EU last October because it did not “have a rating of at least ‘Largely Compliant’ by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes for Exchange of Information on Request and has not resolved this issue yet”.

In December, Government application for a Supplementary Review from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was approved, paving the way for this country to be taken off the blacklist.

EU officials said the list, which is updated twice a year, will next be issued in October. (SC)

Caribbean

News

VI threatened with EU blacklist again

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:30:01 +0000

VI threatened with EU blacklist again admin Wed, 02/03/2021 - 17:30

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Original Publisher

Business – The BVI Beacon

Original Article

VI threatened with EU blacklist again

The dawn of Brexit could find the Virgin Islands on the European Union blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions even though the territory passed economic substance legislation in 2018 specifically to avoid that censure.

Last week, the European parliament passed a resolution calling for a measure that would automatically blacklist British territories like the VI, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands that have a zero percent corporate tax rate — and that now have a weakened voice in the EU in the wake of the United Kingdom’s split from the organisation.

The VI is not specifically mentioned in the resolution, which singled out the Cayman Islands — a UK territory that was removed from the blacklist late last year — for still having a zero percent corporate tax rate and for its inclusion in the top 10 destinations for “phantom investments” in a ranking by the International Monetary Fund.

This situation “raises questions about transparency and about a possible preferential approach to some countries,” the resolution states. “The State of Tax Justice 2020 report found that a mere two percent of global tax losses were caused by jurisdictions on the EU list;whereas the Cayman Islands were found to be the jurisdiction responsible for the most global tax losses, costing others over $70 billion a year, or 16.5 percent of the total tax losses.”

The resolution, which passed last week by a vote of 587 to 50, includes provisions calling for the automatic inclusion of countries that use a zero percent tax regime.

The inclusion of such jurisdictions on the blacklist, which was last revised in October and now includes 12 jurisdictions, would rest on a decision by the 27 member states on the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council, which was set to meet this week.

History

Nevertheless, the VI was grey-listed along with other jurisdictions in 2017. At the last review of the list in March 2018, the EU concluded that the VI, the Bahamas and Cayman needed further technical guidance from the EU and had until the end of 2019 to adapt local legislation, which resulted in the Economic Substance Act being rushed through the House of Assembly in late 2018.

Thanks to this move, the VI was whitelisted, alongside 16 other jurisdictions, in February 2020. Although Cayman did pass new legislation at the end of January 2020, it appears the move came too late, with the EU stating that the territory “does not have appropriate measures in place relating to economic substance in the area of collective investment vehicles.” Thus, Cayman remained on the blacklist before being removed in October along with Oman.

The list currently includes American Samoa, Anguilla, Barbados, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, the Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. However, in its resolution last week, EU noted that some of the most “harmful third jurisdictions,” including the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, had been removed from the list after “very minimal substance criteria and weak enforcement measures.”

The EU’s resolution calls on the EU Council to “include the automatic listing of third jurisdictions with a zero percent corporate tax rate or with no taxes on companies’ profits as a standalone criterion.”

Besides Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic has put pressure on nations to tackle budget shortfalls, causing them to look to low-tax jurisdictions to recover the perceived lost revenue. The Brexit deal was based on “mutual values and geared towards common prosperity, which automatically excludes aggressive tax competition,” the resolution noted.

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