KINGSTON, Jamaica - The Jamaican Government and the United States (US) are expected to sign an agreement by July aimed at endorsing a new hegemony tax act called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires local financial institutions to rat out US account holders.
Concurrently, a government working group is seeking to get a number of institutions exempted from FATCA compliance based on their low risk.
CASTRIES, St. Lucia CMC - Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has challenged Cabinet secretaries and heads of the Public Services in the Commonwealth Caribbean to set examples in their professional lives so others in the service may be inspired and motivated.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the "Commonwealth Caribbean Cabinet Secretaries and Heads of Public Service Consultative Meeting" in Vieux-Fort, south of here, Anthony said that this was “a testing time for leadership” in regional public services.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is returning home Friday after holding talks with his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart, Kamla Persad Bissessar on further improving trading and other relations between the two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Prepare for an active hurricane season.
Director of the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) Judy Thomas sounded this warning yesterday saying that residents should prepare homes and businesses against flooding and strong winds.
KINGSTOWN—The shareholder governments of regional airline, LIAT, will meet in Barbados today, but a planned meeting in Bridgetown with T&T’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar will not materialise, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has said. He told a news conference his T&T counterpart was unable to attend the meeting because Parliament would be meeting on the same day.
Gonsalves, who serves as chairman of the shareholders, said the meeting with Persad-Bissessar would have dealt with ongoing concerns with the T&T-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL).
GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Brazil’s ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo, is to be approved by acclamation, as the Geneva-based organisation’s new director-general, at next Tuesday’s meeting of its general council.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - There is an obvious irony in the hemispheric choice of Trinidad and Tobago as the venue for the eighth Americas Competitiveness Forum in October 2014.
The most recent World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report moved T&T from 86 out of 133 countries in 2010, to 81 out of 142 countries in 2012. On the Global Innovation Index, Trinidad and Tobago now ranks 81 out of 125 countries in 2012, a steep drop from the 2010 baseline ranking of 55.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Keeping a keen eye south of the border, the Obama administration is intensifying its engagement with Latin America, hosting leaders from a pair of presidents at the White House and sending Vice President Joe Biden to visit two others.
Peru's President Ollanta Humala and Chile's President Sebastian Pinera will travel to Washington in June to meet with President Barack Obama, the White House said Wednesday. And next week, Biden will make stops in Brazil and Colombia, plus the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.:
GENEVA (Trinidad Guardian) —The incoming head of the World Trade Organisation says his first priority will be to try to rescue its credibility as a forum for trade negotiations. Brazilian Ambassador Roberto Azevedo told a packed room of reporters at Brazils WTO mission Wednesday that “the negotiating pillar of the WTO is clearly stuck.” At the WTO, diplomats and officials congratulated Azevedo on his selection as WTO director general for the next four years.
BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS - Tourism authorities are concerned about complaints about rude and arrogant personnel at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA).
Commenting on a story appearing on the Back Page of yesterday’s MIDWEEK NATION about ratings Barbados was receiving from some of the visitors passing through the airport, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport Irene Sandiford-Garner said the reports were of concern to tourism authorities who had discussed the matter and determined it was an area that “must be tackled at all levels”.