AG: TT speaking with EU on removal from blacklist

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi said he was speaking with the European Commission (EC) and the European Union (EU) about removing TT from the EU's financial blacklist.

He was contributing to the budget debate in the House on Monday.

He said Government brought the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) suite of legislation and managed to pass it under threat of international sanction. He also said legislation has been brought to deal with a number of areas related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and TT has successfully graduated out of the FATF greylisting.

"And that is a unique accomplishment which we received international accolade on."

He reported he is in communication with the EC and EU, in line with Caricom's position, to say that their blacklisting of TT "is to be rejected and that we will take aggressive steps, because the data demonstrates that we have achieved every target that they have asked us in the FATF regime to achieve, and therefore the EU's utilisation of the FATF methodology is wrong and is inappropriate."

Al-Rawi said Government intended to take that charge squarely to the EU, as the next review is in November. He reported he has been in conversation with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and attorneys general and other participants regarding a unified approach, and Caricom has written to the EU and EC.

"We cannot be allowed to de-bank and to de-risk ourselves in this fashion."

In February 2019 the EU identified TT, US and 21 other states that pose money-laundering and terror-financing risks, a move that would have affected day-to-day banking transactions with European banks.