Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley isn’t a happy camper right now, as she believes her country is being treated unfairly by the European Union (EU).

The Caribbean country is scheduled to be blacklisted by the EU on Tuesday due to its failure to enact a tax framework within the required time.

But Mottley

believes this course of action is wrong.

“The EU is adamant that it has the right to blacklist countries and even that phrase (blacklist), I find offensive… well, I’m black and I’m proud. (They have said ) that we will take a lash on Tuesday, not because of anything done by this government but because between 2015 and 2018,” she said during a political rally on Sunday.

“They are now going to give us a lash by something not done by this government but by the last administration. Because the last administration did not do audits ….We will take it, but we will disagree with them. I told them that it is wrong and disproportionate.”

Mottley has since written to the EU and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the matter.

Barbados was

required to implement a number of changes to its tax exchange framework between

July 2015 and June 2018 in order to become fully compliant with the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Global Forum

Standard on the exchange of tax information.

The change did not occur in the required time, but the necessary framework was put in place by December 2019. Although Barbados did what was required, the country still received a ‘partially compliant’ rating even though the review process for the 2015 to 2018 period was only completed in March 2020.