PANAMA: Panama lashes out at EU over tax haven ‘outrage’

Panama on Thursday lashed out at the European Union for keeping the country on its tax haven blacklist despite its efforts to crack down on tax evasion.

President Jose Raul Mulino said he had asked his foreign minister to summon European ambassadors “to show the government’s dissatisfaction with this new outrage.”

The EU earlier this week declared 11 jurisdictions as non-cooperative for tax purposes, particularly when it comes to sharing information.

They are American Samoa, Anguilla, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

The Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda was removed from the list, which was created in 2017, a year after the Panama Papers scandal, to crack down on tax evasion.

The leak of 11.5 million files from the law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama City in 2016 rocked the world, exposing how the rich and famous used offshore accounts to stash hundreds of millions of dollars from tax authorities.

The scandal dealt a severe blow to Panama’s reputation as an offshore financial hub, prompting it to implement several reforms, including penalizing tax evasion.

Mulino told reporters there was “no justification” for his country’s continued blacklisting by the EU.

“We do not launder money as a state policy, much less finance terrorism, nor are we in a position to sponsor international scoundrels,” he said.

He warned that companies from countries that blacklisted Panama would not be able to bid for public works contracts in the Central American country and would also not receive Panama’s support in international forums.

Panama will take up a rotating seat on the UN Security Council in January.

Since taking office on July 1, the right-wing Mulino has made it his mission to have Panama removed from tax blacklists.

In 2023, the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization that combats money laundering and terrorism financing, removed Panama from its gray list.