Minister Toppin welcomes Barbados’ removal from EU blacklist

Minister of International Business and Industry Ronald Toppin welcomes Barbados’ removal from the EU blacklist of on non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

BELOW IS THE FULL TEXT OF HIS MESSAGE

I can confirm that, today, the European Union (EU) Ministers of Finance removed Barbados from its blacklist.

The truth is that, exactly why Barbados was placed on that list is perhaps a genuine mystery, since we had not only met the International Taxation Standards set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is the globally recognized International Tax-Standard setting and regulatory body, but we had simply requested details from the EU in relation to the commitment that they had asked us to make to them, which details were only supplied after we were blacklisted.

However, no country wishes to be on any blacklist, especially a country like Barbados which takes its character and reputation in the international community very seriously.

Hence, after discussions between the Ministry of International Business and the EU, at the technical level, we were able to reach agreement on the way forward.

We, in the Ministry of International Business, express sincere thanks to the business community and the private sector for staying the course with us and for the confidence they reposed in the Government of Barbados in its handling of this matter.