As we've told you earlier in the news, the United States and the European Union has Belize and other Caribbean countries jumping through hoops to keep their offshore services sector functioning. And two weeks ago, the European Union gave those same countries, Belize included, a body blow when it compounded the present problems by also putting out a blacklist naming 30 countries - very many of them in the Caribbean. It called them "non-cooperative jurisdictions." This can affect not only the offshore sector but can also damage correspondent banking relationships - which is the fate that already befell the Belize Bank. But the The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, known as the OECD has sent out a statement scolding the European Union, saying that, as regards money laundering regulations, quote, "a number of countries identified in the EU exercise are either fully or largely compliant (some are) even...early adopters',"
On Friday, the Prime Minister seized upon that point when he spoke to the media on Friday:...
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"OECD has said "this is nonsense." OECD are the ones that are principally in charged and Belize, like all the others are fully compliant. We've signed a general sort of European FATCA, a protocol that requires us to give all the information. But this is the big boys insisting in doing things their way and causing all sorts of difficulties for us and then ceasing on those difficulties to be accused...."
Despite the OECD's rather blunt assessment, the ten European Union countries who are pushing the blacklist have not relented.
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