Panama mulls retaliation as France looks to put it on 'tax haven' list

2016-04-05 11:51:32

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Panama's Minister of the Presidency Alvaro Aleman speaks during a press conference about the Mossack Fonseca firm and the Panama Papers revelations in Panama City on April 5 2016. A massive leak -coming from Mossack Fonseca- of 11.5 million tax documents on Sunday exposed the secret offshore dealings of aides to Russian president Vladimir Putin world leaders and celebrities including Barcelona forward Lionel Messi. An investigation into the documents by more than 100 media groups described as one of the largest such probes in history revealed the hidden offshore dealings in the assets of around 140 political figures -- including 12 current or former heads of states. AFP / RODRIGO ARANGUA

Panama City: Panama's government said Tuesday it could retaliate if France makes good on its decision to put the Central American nation back on a "tax haven" list following the "Panama Papers" revelations.

"In Panama there is a law that sets out retaliation measures against countries that include Panama in 'gray lists'" Alvaro Aleman the minister for the presidency equivalent to the post of prime minister told a news conference.

Aleman said that as a result "the government is going to have to analyze the situation and is inclined to take a series of steps that naturally could go towards adopting means of retaliation."

The government of Panama and the country's vital financial services sector are panicking in the wake of the massive data leak from one of the country's law firms Mossack Fonseca. The revelations show how some of the world's wealthy set up offshore companies for their assets to hide them from scrutiny.

They fear the revelations being published in media around the world could scupper years of work to shed Panama's past reputation as a haven for money-launderers and tax cheats.

In February this year the country managed to get off an international "gray list" of tax havens by passing some reforms curbing somewhat the anonymity of offshore companies.

But after the so-called Panama Papers revelations France's finance minister Michel Sapin on Tuesday told the French parliament that "France has decided to put Panama back on the list of uncooperative countries."

France removed Panama from the list of Uncooperative States and Territories (ETNC) in 2012 after the two countries reached a bilateral accord on fighting tax evasion.

AFP

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