Germany applauds Panama’s efforts to get off the list of tax havens

Germany applauded this Friday Panama for “the reform processes that it is promoting” to get off the discriminatory lists, including those of the European Unionwho consider the Central American country a tax haven and with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering.

“I have also made it clear that it has been an area on which we have disagreed in the past, which is why I was happy to hear the reform processes that they are promoting and (that) together with the European Comission there will be talk about the exclusion or inclusion of the lists”, said the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, during a press conference in Panama with her Panamanian counterpart, Janaina Tewaney Mencomo.

Baerbock noted that “As the European Union, we have a common policy in this area (fiscal transparency), which is why there are these inclusions in the lists at the European level… (that) we also discussed and the Minister of Finance (of Panama) has reported on the conversation that has been maintained in this regard (about) what are the reforms that have taken place in this area”.

In 2020, the European Union (EU) once again included Panama on its “black” list of tax havens, from which it had left in January 2018, for not complying with the rules of the Global Forum on transparency and exchange of tax information of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Central American country had entered the first blacklist in December 2017, created as a result of the Panama Papers, the leak in 2016 of documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, which involved personalities from all over the world and raised suspicions of tax evasion. , concealment of fortunes and money laundering.

Last year, the EU it kept Panama on that list along with American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu, after verifying that they still do not cooperate or have not made the reforms to which they had committed.

Panama is also on the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list of countries that have deficiencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, after being included again in 2019.

Last April, the Panamanian Parliament shelved a domain forfeiture bill promoted by the Government as a mechanism to get off the lists in which the country remains due to deficiencies in the fight against money laundering, due to the absence of more than half of the 71 deputies during the discussion of the project.

The asset forfeiture law focuses exclusively on the prosecution of all kinds of assets that make up the wealth derived from criminal activity, according to the definition of the UN. The President of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo, announced that the Executive would resubmit the project to Parliament “the first week of July.”

Panama’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Héctor Alexander, said that this year “they will have full compliance with the 15 actions of the FATF Action Plan,” according to a statement released yesterday.

Baerbock closed a Latin American tour in Panama that also took her to Brazil and Colombia.