The Federation has been included in list of 18 countries accused of failing to cooperate on tax issues, and plans to place punitive taxes on certain financial transactions involving them. The full French list includes: Anguilla, Belize, Brunei, Costa Rica, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Liberia, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Panama, Philippines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines. In his monthly press conference, held on Feb. 17, Prime Minister Douglas addressed the blacklist, stating that the Federation’s inclusion was ‘premature’. “In fact, as I speak about this I should emphasize that so far St. Kitts and Nevis has already signed nine different agreements with OECD countries. We have also initialed another 11 and there are six more of these countries that are waiting to be dealt with By us. In fact, we expect that By March, we would have met the basic requirements to be removed from the OECD ‘gray list’. “We think that France has acted out of turn and it has acted prematurely against the commitment that was made with the OECD countries that March would have been the deadline for any punitive action to be taken,” said Dr. Douglas. The Prme Minister promised to address the issue more fully in an up-coming prepared statement.
