THE official public message from the Government of the United States of America is that it does not share the concerns expressed by France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy about the operations of so-called “tax havens” in the Caribbean that supposedly facilitate money laundering crimes.

That message, which could be comforting for regional governments that have so far rejected such allegations, came last week from the USA’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder.

A distinguished son of the Caribbean diaspora with Barbadian roots (his grandparents and father were Barbadians by birth), Holder also had an encouraging assurance for the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. His assurance? There would be “no fall out” (as headlined by the Trinidad Express), between Washington and Port-of-Spain over a recent decision by a High Court against the extradition of two prominent Trinidadian businessmen to the USA on major corruption charges.

Holder’s visits to, first Trinidad and Tobago, and later Barbados had to do with his participation in Port-of-Spain in the third conference of Ministers Responsible for Security in the Americas and with a particular focus on transnational crimes like narco-trafficking, gun-running and money laundering.

Of course, for those familiar with relations between the USA and its staunch and powerful allies of the NATO bloc countries in Western Europe — irrespective of the administration in Washington — the fact that Attorney General Holder does not “share” the position of the French President in relation to “tax havens” in this region, should not be viewed as likely to translate in favour of support for the misrepresented Caribbean jurisdictions.

After all, France had commendably broken ranks with powerful western allies like the USA and Britain last month to vote in favour of Palestine’s full membership of UNESCO, having previously abstained. Also surprisingly abstaining were six Caricom states — Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Haiti and St Kitts and Nevis.

Attorney General Holder, therefore, would be aware that the USA can no longer depend on France’s support in the UN Security Council when the issue of Palestinian statehood membership at the UN comes up soon for a decisive vote.

However, for now the focus of this article remains on the recent passionate attack by the French president on comparatively small and vulnerable economies as “tax havens”, when he hosted the G20 summit in the famous tourist city of Cannes.

While leading international media have been varyingly pointing to “the disarray” and “failures” of the two-day summit in Cannes — in particular lack of precise initiatives to arrest the spreading financial crisis in Europe — the French president chose to engage in the bullying politics of the rich and ‘powerful’ against comparatively small and developing nations by harmfully describing them as “tax havens”.

A so-called ‘tax haven” is defined as a state or territory where corporate entities and entrepreneurs exploit, to their advantage, low or no taxes and with a perceived low corruption rate. Generally, it connotes an unflattering impression of collusion by governments that offer these “incentives”.

According to President Sarkozy’s sweeping allegations against the 11 countries he identified during the G20 Summit, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are among them, along with two other nations of the Western Hemisphere — Panama and Uruguay.

The governments of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Panama, lost no time in angry retaliations, varyingly dismissing the Sarkozy tax haven “hit list” as false, wholly inappropriate and insulting.

The prime minister of Barbados, Freundel Stuart, was precise: “We would ask that all countries use insight and accuracy in their characterisation of other countries, especially when that characterisation has negative connotations…”

Before Stuart, the finance minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Winston Dookeran, had swiftly moved to seek a clarification from the French embassy in Port-of-Spain, but also figured it prudent to make public his Government’s contention that President Sarkozy’s tax haven claim was “premature and perhaps improper…”

However, now that Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados have exercised restraint in their immediate public responses — in contrast to Panama’s public call for an apology from the French president — there needs to be a collective rebuke from the 14 independent member states of the Caribbean Community in defence of Caribbean sovereignty.

Such a demonstration of unanimity in challenging the accuracy of the French president’s questioning of the integrity of governments in Caricom by unsupported claims, and no prior consultation about the operations of “tax havens”, could well help to ease some of the deep disappointment and political grief caused by the divisions that occurred last month in Paris over the seating of Palestine as a full member of UNESCO.

Telling it, together, like it really is, to Sarkozy of how very wrong and unjust he has been in his allegations against three Caricom partner states, and having the statement copied to the other 19 members of the G20 would certainly be more meaningful than isolated individual responses by affected Caribbean states.

The big question is whether Caricom is prepared to take such a stand — consistent with co-ordination of foreign policy relations — or remain distracted and disunited as occurred when the momentous decision was taken last month in favour of Palestine with votes from leading nations like China, Russia, France, India, Brazil and South Africa?