CARICOM Against EU Blacklist “infringement of sovereign rights”

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has hit out at the European Union (EU), as it has blacklisted some member states within the regional body.

In a statement yesterday, the Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said the revised list, issued earlier this month, is a “renewed attack on our member states’” economic prospects constituting “an infringement of our sovereign right of self-determination in the best interests of the Caricom people”.

According to the EU, the countries, purportedly not adhering to good governance include Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda.

The EU also placed seven other Caricom member states on a monitoring list as the governments committed to undertake reforms by December 2019.

These are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, and Cayman Islands.

“The narrative provided by the EU Council to support the inclusion of the blacklisted states is grossly misleading and misrepresents the response, in good faith, of our members since the initial listing in December 2017,” said Caricom.

“Moreover, we are concerned that the EU’s ‘tax good governance strategy’ is beginning to border on anti-competitive behaviour targeted at the decimation of the international business/financial services sector in the Caribbean.”