BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The news that our offshore sector was recently severely criticized in the Canadian parliament is one more inconvenient truth that the Barbados economic policymakers will have to face.
In a report earlier this month, the Standing Committee on Finance of that country’s parliament made recommendations to its government on a number of proposals to come down hard on Canadian companies and individuals using this country and other low-tax jurisdictions.
This is a matter of some importance to this country since we source a number of our major offshore investors from Canada, and given the international downturn, we need to maintain as much of that foreign exchange earning business as we can hold onto, while we seek to stabilize the economy and return it to growth.