Not fair!

Government is being blamed for this country being ostracized by the international community as a tax haven, but Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is maintaining that Barbados doesn’t deserve that label.
Dismissing a recent claim by France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy that Barbados is among 11 tax havens that should be shunned for failure to conform to acceptable tax practices, Stuart said people needed to get their facts straight before making such allegations.
“We would ask that all countries use insight and accuracy in their characterization of other countries, especially when that characterization has negative connotations,” Stuart said in a statement issued yesterday through Invest Barbados, joining Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxine McClean in defending the country’s reputation.
He pointed to several agreements he said demonstrated Barbados’ commitment to the exchange of tax information and insisted that the island was “a highly respected international financial jurisdiction that, for more than 40 years, has included provisions in its tax treaties to ensure the reciprocal exchange of tax information”.
Read the full story in today’s MIDWEEK NATION.