The Council of the European Union adopted a blacklist of tax havens including 17 countries and territories deemed uncooperative on tax matters.
Included on the blacklist approved by EU finance ministers were American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Council said the blacklisted jurisdictions failed to take significant action to address deficiencies identified by the EU and did not engage in a meaningful dialogue on tax transparency, fair taxation and implementation of measures against tax base erosion and profit shifting.
The jurisdictions must change their approaches, according to the Council. Pending such changes, the EU and its member states could apply defensive measures, including those outside the field of taxation. Some countries have proposed imposing sanctions on the blacklisted jurisdictions, previous reports said.
"This is not just a one-off process," Council President and Estonian Finance Minister Toomas Tõniste said of the list, which is aimed at preventing tax fraud and tax evasion. "We will regularly review and update the list in the years to come. Our aim is to ensure that good tax governance becomes the new norm," Tõniste added.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said another 47 jurisdictions were included on a "grey" list, as they were considered to be not currently compliant with EU standards, though they had committed to changing their tax rules, Sky News reported.
