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Bahamas Banks to Conform to be removed from Black List
Bahamas to Re-Examine Tax Laws
By Christopher Saunders
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 5, 2002; 8:16 PM
NASSAU, Bahamas –– The new Bahamian government will re-examine laws tightening regulation of secretive offshore banks to try to cut costs and reduce red tape, the finance minister-designate said Sunday.
The Progress Liberal Party government, elected in a landslide on Thursday, "recognizes the need for the Bahamas to meet international standards," said the minister, James Smith.
But Smith, a former Central Bank governor, said the government also had to be sensitive to complaints from the country's offshore banking industry.
Smith spoke in an interview with national television to be broadcast Sunday night. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of his statements.
The new laws, written to get the Bahamas off an international blacklist of money-laundering and tax havens, also would be reviewed to see if they conform with the constitution.
Smith said businesses had complained that complying with the new standards was costly, cumbersome and full of red tape.
The Bahamas also will reconsider the country stand toward the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, he said.
"It is very difficult for so many countries in your hemisphere doing something, and you staying on the outside," he said. "You run the risk of being isolated. But we do have a choice at the end of the day to decide to go or not."
The Bahamas has signed on to the FTAA provisionally, with reservations that free migration could make the Bahamas a magnet for poor migrants. This 700-island archipelago of 300,000 people has one of the highest incomes in the region.
Smith on Friday accepted the portfolio to handle day-to-day management of fiscal affairs.
Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party won 29 of 40 Parliament seats in the recent elections. Christie is expected to name his 12-member Cabinet by week's end.
© 2002 The Associated Press
By Christopher Saunders
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 5, 2002; 8:16 PM
NASSAU, Bahamas –– The new Bahamian government will re-examine laws tightening regulation of secretive offshore banks to try to cut costs and reduce red tape, the finance minister-designate said Sunday.
The Progress Liberal Party government, elected in a landslide on Thursday, "recognizes the need for the Bahamas to meet international standards," said the minister, James Smith.
But Smith, a former Central Bank governor, said the government also had to be sensitive to complaints from the country's offshore banking industry.
Smith spoke in an interview with national television to be broadcast Sunday night. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of his statements.
The new laws, written to get the Bahamas off an international blacklist of money-laundering and tax havens, also would be reviewed to see if they conform with the constitution.
Smith said businesses had complained that complying with the new standards was costly, cumbersome and full of red tape.
The Bahamas also will reconsider the country stand toward the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, he said.
"It is very difficult for so many countries in your hemisphere doing something, and you staying on the outside," he said. "You run the risk of being isolated. But we do have a choice at the end of the day to decide to go or not."
The Bahamas has signed on to the FTAA provisionally, with reservations that free migration could make the Bahamas a magnet for poor migrants. This 700-island archipelago of 300,000 people has one of the highest incomes in the region.
Smith on Friday accepted the portfolio to handle day-to-day management of fiscal affairs.
Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party won 29 of 40 Parliament seats in the recent elections. Christie is expected to name his 12-member Cabinet by week's end.
© 2002 The Associated Press