France acted ‘out of turn and prematurely’ says Prime Minister Douglas

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas at Wednesday’s Press Conference (photo by Erasmus Williams)

ST. KITTS, FEBRUARY 18TH 20010 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has accused France of “acting out of turn and prematurely” by including St. Kitts and Nevis on a list on “uncooperative tax havens.”

Resuming his monthly press conferences, the first since his re-election and re-appointment as Prime Minister following the January 25th 2010 general elections, Dr. Douglas, who is also Minister of Finance, promised a separate statement on the matter.

“We think that France has acted out of turn and it has acted prematurely against the commitment that was made with the OECD countries that March 2010 would have been the deadline for any punitive action to be taken,” said Prime Minister Douglas.

He said that St. Kitts and Nevis has already signed nine different agreements with OECD countries. Agreements have been initialed with 11 other nations and negotiations are continuing with six more countries.

France earlier this week named 18 nations as “uncooperative tax havens” as it relates to the signing of Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA and declared its intention to impose greater taxes on all domestic companies that have operations in those jurisdictions.

Caribbean countries on that list are Anguilla, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.