The 15-nation Caribbean community is angry at the United States for labelling virtually all members of the regional trade bloc as money laundering jurisdictions and plans to mount a stiff lobbying effort in Washington, its leader said Friday.
CARICOM Secretary General Irwin La Rocque said the United States’s listing 14 member states in its 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report could have devastating effects on the region.
Most of the countries have economies heavily dependent on tourism and financial services such as offshore banking and economic citizenships.
“I think these unilateral blacklistings are not helping anything,” he said, adding that “there ought to be some discussion and transparency on how these lists are arrived at.”
La Rocque spoke to AFP after the issue was discussed by CARICOM trade ministers at a two-day meeting in Guyana, on the northeast coast of South America.
He said that when CARICOM foreign ministers meet in Barbados next month, they would prepare the groundwork to intensify regional lobbying efforts that individual member states have already begun in Washington.
The only CARICOM member state not blacklisted by Washington was Montserrat, a British overseas territory.
La Rocque insisted CARICOM members comply with international norms for fighting money laundering.
“And all of a sudden we see these unilateral blacklistings. This is not the way to do it,” he said.
In recent years, a number of US commercial banks have cut relationships with some banks across the Caribbean in an effort to reduce the risk of being exposed to movement of dirty money across borders, as part of the global fight against money laundering and terror financing.
Listed as “major money laundering countries” in the INCS report are Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Other Caribbean territories and countries also labeled as money launderers in the US report are Aruba, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, the Dominican Republic and Saint Maarten.
Also listed are Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and United Kingdom.
Bron: GeoTV
Already for many years, pointing to others (which also in other fields is a very common behaviour for locals On these islands) is the only way of coping with questions regarding laudering of criminal money that is probably the main source of income for most of these countries. Fortunately, the rest of the world, not only usa, finaly does not take this anymore. Caricom (as well as the locals on these islands) have to face consequences if they continue their behaviour and do not look for more sustainable souces of income.
Grappig, direct weer op de ontkenningstoer. ‘Financial services’ is natuurlijk een aardige omschrijving voor constructies die belasting ontwijken (niets mee mis) en in het kielzog daarvan witwassen (wel iets mee mis).
Zouden de CARICOM leden zulke unieke financial services hebben dat de ontwikkelde landen die services zelf niet kunnen leveren? Zo is het natuurlijk niet. Landen als de USA en EU hebben niet zo veel zin meer om hun belastinginkomsten te laten afromen. En ze maken zelf wel uit hoe ze daar in eigen land een einde aan maken, zonder goedkeuring van CARICOM.
America wants to control the world at there wim -aint going to happen-
America get your crap together-your bankrupt and the crooks are within your own ranks.
Stop blaming other countries for your blunders –