Under measures confirmed today, the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, Barbados, Belize, the British overseas territory of Bermuda, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu and Dominica all join the EU's tax haven blacklist.

The blacklist previously consisted of:

Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and three U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

EU documents seen by the Reuters news agency show that:

  • Italy and Estonia successfully objected to the new tax haven list, as they opposed the inclusion of the United Arab Emirates.
  • Britain had lifted its veto on the listing of its overseas territory of Bermuda.
  • The Netherlands also declined to use their veto over Aruba.

According to Reuters all the additions to the list were given about a year to change tax rules, but have so far not done so, EU officials said.

EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the listing process was a great success because has pushed dozens of countries to abolish “harmful tax regimes”.

External links

Reuters report