Yahoo – AFP,
Alex PIGMAN, December 5, 2017
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European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said officials from
member states were negotiating from an initial list of 29 countries (AFP Photo/
EMMANUEL DUNAND)
|
Brussels
(AFP) - European Union ministers adopted on Tuesday a blacklist of 17 non-EU
tax havens including Panama, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates after a
year of tough negotiations.
The
Paradise Papers leak last month gave a new impetus to the plan, making public
some of the intricate ways the world's rich evade tax using offshore havens.
"We
have adopted at EU level a list of states which are not doing enough to fight
tax evasion. This blacklist includes 17 states," French finance minister
Bruno Le Maire told reporters in Brussels.
The EU has
struggled for over a year to finalise the blacklist, with smaller, low-tax EU
nations such as Ireland, Malta and Luxembourg worried about scaring off
multinationals.
The
countries on the list are: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam,
Macau, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia,
Samoa, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
A further
47 countries are on a "grey list", sources said.
Other
jurisdictions are understood to have been given leeway after suffering severe
damage during hurricanes in the Caribbean earlier this year.
Britain
fought particularly hard against the list, afraid that its crown dependencies,
including Jersey and the Virgin Islands, would be singled out.
Senior
officials from member states had whittled down an initial draft of 29
countries, with divisions still strong in recent days on who would make the
final version.
EU Economic
Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said ahead of the official announcement
that this was fewer than the 20 countries he had hoped for but would be a
"initial victory".
 |
The list is
the latest international effort to clamp down on tax avoidance,
increasingly
seen as a moral issue (AFP Photo/Thomas SAINT-CRICQ)
|
Enforcement problem
Enforcement
is the biggest problem, with EU countries split over whether blacklisted countries
should be subjected to financial sanctions or if the list itself is shaming
enough.
Several
states, including France, support tough measures against the listed tax havens
such as exclusion from EU and World Bank funding, though the debate is still open.
Other
countries are reluctant to draw up common sanctions, believing that
responsibility is better left to member states.
"To be
on a blacklist is in itself bad enough and of course there will be consequences
for these countries," Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said.
An existing
list of tax havens compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) currently includes only Trinidad and Tobago.
The EU
originally screened a total of 92 jurisdictions and once the list is compiled
it is expected to be continuously updated.
In a blow
to activists, states that charge no corporate tax are not automatically
considered at risk of breaching EU tax criteria.
However,
the criteria do single out countries that facilitate the creation of shell
companies and other structures that could aid tax avoidance.
Countries
in the EU's firing line have been given an opportunity to stay off the list if
they provide a political commitment and a detailed plan to comply.
All
countries, which initially included the US, were given until Tuesday's meeting
of the EU's 28 finance ministers to provide feedback and possible measures to
satisfy EU demands.
The list is
the latest international effort to clamp down on tax avoidance -- increasingly
seen as a moral issue -- following the OECD's move to compile a list of
"uncooperative tax havens".
#UPDATE These are the 17 tax havens blacklisted by the EU for "not doing enough to fight tax evasion" https://t.co/C6lBP81A1R pic.twitter.com/kaMdLBLGX6— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 5, 2017
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