Wednesday 26th June 2013 — As most of you know, I was invited to London by PM David Cameron to attend a high level event on June 15th on tax, trade, and transparency where matters related to the UK’s Presidency of the G8 were tabled. The UK has made fight the scourge of tax evasion a priority for the G8 summit. And as a result, the Overseas Territories were asked to commit to joining the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters which is a global standard on exchange of information for tax purposes.
To be clear, my Government is prepared to support in principle the concept of this Convention being extended to Anguilla once certain concern matters are addressed. However I must say, we have serious questions about its implementation particularly the resourcing of such an agreement in Anguilla. As such, we will only be able to support the convention if given the highest assurance from HMG that our concerns will be fully resolved andwhere there are considerable resourcing deficiencies that HMG will meet these needs.
Contrary to what was reported in the UK press, I have not signed a deal on Anguilla’s behalf what I have committed to doing, is to review the effectiveness of Anguilla’s legal and enforcement framework on beneficial ownership and to produce a related action plan.
Anguilla has always prided itself on being a well regulated jurisdiction and we recognize that automatic exchange of information is fast becoming the new standard; however there needs to be a level playing field. To date, we have signed 17 TIEAs which are enforced andit is expected we will sign more in the near future.
In addition to discussions surrounding the G8 agenda, I was a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Cameron for Trooping the Color, which is a military celebration to mark the Queen’s birthday. I also had a productive lunch with Hon. Nick Clegg MP, the Deputy Prime Minister where we discussed matters of significance related to Anguilla.
Later, I was met by my Trade and Investment Officer, Mr. Perin Bradley, at Lancaster House for the Open for Growth event. The Open for Growth event, chaired by Mr. Cameron was a wonderful opportunity for us to influence the deliberations around the G8 agenda and I was thrilled to be a part of it.
My Government looks forward to working with HMG and the other Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies in support of the UK’s Presidency of the G8 and its agenda.
Hubert Hughes
