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In a sharp retort to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Caribbean Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) publicly expressed concern over Sarkozy’s claim that three of its member states are “tax havens.”

COTED stated that the goals of the member states of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) are to “reignite growth, create jobs and ensure financial stability.” COTED went on to say that Sarkozy’s remarks, expressed at the close of the G-20 Summit and alleging that the three countries are “tax havens,” were inconsistent with the mission expressed in G-20′s Official Declaration.

“Given our member states’ ongoing collaboration and cooperation with the Global Forum in order to ensure that our legal and regulatory framework meets the global standard, such characterization of CARICOM states is subjective and completely without basis. We therefore categorically reject the President’s assertions with respect to CARICOM states.”

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COTED asserts that Sarkozy’s comments ignore CARICOM member states’ efforts to comply with international standards, and that the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has not, in fact, defined any jurisdictions as “tax havens.” COTED added that CARICOM is in the process of reworking the Intra-CARICOM Double Taxation Agreement to abide by the global standards for international tax information exchange.

Sarkozy’s criticisms were aimed at territories that were cited for not providing a free flow of tax information in recent peer review evaluations. According to Sarkozy, these territories remain slow to progress to the next level of “tax information exchange in practice.”

COTED maintains that its member states recognize the authority of the peer reviews and have been actively amending their policies to become compliant. COTED concluded that “the Global Forum is intended to be a collaborative and cooperative process rather than the adversarial relationship with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that had prevailed in the past.”

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