Bridgetown, Barbados (CMC) — Barbados says it seeking to hold talks with Colombia on a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA).
Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development Minister Donville Inniss, said that although Bridgetown had recently initialled a TIEA with Bogota, neither side considered the TIEA an alternative to a full, comprehensive tax treaty.
He said as a result Barbados remained a treaty-based jurisdiction and a bilateral was held with the delegation from Colombia on the sidelines of an international conference in Berlin is to agree on the next steps for determining a mutually convenient time to launch tax treaty talks.
“On both sides there is a shared commitment to concluding a tax treaty and Colombia’s decision to negotiate a tax treaty with Panama reinforces this new thrust both at the political and technical level,” Inniss said.
Inniss also urged Caribbean countries to work together to in a bid to take advantage of a new initiated by the OECD Global Forum to support countries in pursuing greater transparency and exchanges of confidential tax-payer information amongst themselves and the rest of the world.
Inniss said during the Berlin meeting, Barbados held bilateral talks with Kenya, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Cameroon, concluding with agreement to move quickly towards setting dates for negotiating tax treaties.