St. Vincent & the Grenadines PM Gonsalves calls for united CARICOM position on new EU tax measures

St. Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has reiterated a call for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to adopt a united position regarding the European Union’s request that regional countries pass legislation to deal with what Europe has termed “economic substance.”

Gonsalves told a news conference that St. Vincent & the Grenadines has no intention of “rolling over to appease Europe”.

“We have looked carefully as how we have crafted these laws and we believe they will pass muster. If they don’t, we will see, but I assure you St. Vincent & the Grenadines will not roll over and play dead. We will not surrender. As I said we will compromise, we will accommodate, but we will resist creatively those politicians in Europe who are allowing persons to do things in their name,” Gonsalves told reporters.

The Bahamas, Grenada and St. Vincent & the Grenadines have already passed legislation while other Caribbean countries are contemplating doing so as Europe moves to force countries to adopt measures regarding the establishment of international businesses in the region.

Last week, The Bahamas said it was developing a new framework aimed at strengthening industry regulations and protecting revenues to the public treasury as it relates to enhancing the financial services sector.

Grenada’s Legal Affairs Minister Kindra Maturine-Stewart noted last month that in 2017 the island-nation was among a group of 90 countries that the EU selected to be screened against tax transparency, harmful tax practices and base erosion profit shifting. Maturine-Stewart said the new EU guidelines prohibit new measures that will provide for international companies to benefit but not domiciled in the state.

Gonsalves, who late last month, called for a unified CARICOM position on the matter, said countries are already responding differently to the situation “depending on their own circumstances, but I believe we have done reasonable work. He said that about 2-years ago, he had written to individual Caribbean leaders as well as the CARICOM Secretariat warning about the serious nature of the EU measure.

“And when I wrote in 2017 giving the commitment as to what we will do. I the letter to the CARICOM secretariat, and to every head of government and indicated to them the importance for us to act together. That did not happen. It may well be because the major countries in CARICOM, Jamaica; Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana, do not have this issue dealing with, nor indeed Suriname or indeed Haiti, which is 10 million of the 16 million people in CARICOM. This is a matter which is largely a question for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) -(CMC).