BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Caricom states operating offshore financial services should move swiftly and collectively for their removal from the list of countries identified in the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act that poses “a serious threat” to regional jurisdictions and which was recently reintroduced to the US Congress.

The call for removal has come from former chairman of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) on money laundering and drug trafficking, Sir Ronald Sanders, who represented the region at international fora, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developoment (OECD).

The former Caribbean diplomat and current business consultant, who operates from Barbados and the United Kingdom, was responding to the implications of the reintroduction, just over a week ago, of the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act – first introduced in 2006 by then Senator Barack Obama (now President) and Senator Carl Levin.

Pointing yesterday to the mounting pressures being faced by small states and vulnerable economies as a result of the global economic crisis, Sanders expressed deep concern over the position articulated last Wednesday by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he addressed the US Congress.

Sir Ronald noted that implicit in a question raised by Brown, namely: ‘How much safer would everybody’s savings be if the whole world finally came together to outlaw shadow banking systems and offshore tax havens?’ was “a threat to this region’s legitimate financial centres”.

He feels that the Caribbean should be exempt from a so-called ‘black list’ being vigorously supported by the UK and the US “to satisfy their own domestic interests…”

The English-speaking Caribbean jurisdictions named in the US Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act are: Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla,The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and The Turks and Caicos Islands.