To clean up tax havens, Panama must go beyond Swiss “cheese”
April 15th, 2009
by Bill Holland —
Global Trade Watch
Tax havens such as Panama came under intense scrutiny at the G-20 summit last week as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued a new tax-haven list, including Panama among 30 target countries that agreed to adopt international tax norms years ago but failed to do so.1 Focus on Panama’s tax-haven and money-laundering problems intensified in March when US Trade Representative Ron Kirk suggested at his confirmation hearing that the administration might consider bringing to Congress a controversial Bush-negotiated free trade agreement (FTA) with Panama.
The G-20 London Summit Communiqué committed “to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens. We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems. The era of banking secrecy is over. We note that the OECD has today published a list…”
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