Private sector welcomes EU blacklist removal

by Marlon Madden

The Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) has welcomed news that the island has been removed from the European Union Council’s so-called blacklist, saying this should go a long way towards Barbados better protecting its global business sector.

The jurisdiction was removed from the EU’s blacklist on Monday, even as it awaits the review by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes classification of being “partially compliant”.

Chairman of the BPSA Ed Clarke told Today’s BUSINESS he welcomed the news that the EU has decided to remove Barbados from its list.

“That is excellent news, we just need to continue to do what is required to make sure we don’t get back on these blacklists or grey lists or any of the negative lists we have out there with the EU, OECD and the others,” said Clarke.

“So it is good news to hear, but we just need to continue to do what is required to make sure that we can protect this foreign currency earning business – the whole international business sector. It is important to the growth of Barbados at this time,” he said.

It was following the OECD Global Forum’s classification of Barbados as “partially compliant” at the end of its review in March last year that the EU in May placed the country on its “blacklist” of countries considered non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

Again in October, the EU said it was keeping Barbados on its updated list.

Barbados was required to implement a number of changes to its tax exchange framework between July 2015 and June 2018 in order to be considered fully compliant with the OECD Global Forum, but did not complete those changes until December 2019.

This was what resulted in the country being rated “partially compliant” by the OECD’s Global Forum when the review was completed in March 2020 for the July 2015 to June 2018 review period. (MM)