Weekly Report - 15 July 2003

George Gleadall, president of the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA), has described as 'scare tactics' some actions of industrialised nations who want to clamp down on companies using low tax jurisdictions like Barbados. He added, however, that 'there shouldn't be too much of an impact on Barbados.' 

The latest move in this respect has been the introduction of new legislation in Washington to deter US companies from setting up their head offices in the Caribbean in an attempt to cut the level of corporate taxes they pay at home. The bill has not yet been approved. 

Gleadall said that anti-terrorism financing legislation introduced since the September 2001 attacks on the US has also impacted on the international business sector. 

That legislation, he noted, 'has impacted less on Barbados than it has on other jurisdictions who had a very lax regulatory system. Our regulatory system here is fairly well controlled and that is what Barbados prides itself on.'