Barbados, Grenada, removed from EU tax list

Two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States, Barbados and Grenada, were removed from the European Union’s (EU) list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. Back in December,  CARICOM had strongly objected to the EU’s decision to blacklist four CARICOM jurisdictions – Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago – under the guise that they maintain harmful preferential tax regimes or have failed to comply with international standards for tax transparency and good governance.

The announcement of the removal of countries from the list was made today via press release issued by the Council of the EU.

#CARICOMOrg voices strong objection to new EU blacklist https://t.co/Lb8DwvLEMX pic.twitter.com/SCmVrnGukI

— CARICOM (@CARICOMorg) December 15, 2017

On 23 January 2018, the Council agreed that a delisting was justified in the light of an expert assessment of the commitments made by these jurisdictions to address deficiencies identified by the EU. In each case, the commitments were backed by letters signed at a high political level, the press release said.