European Union adopts blacklist of 17 tax havens

European Union finance ministers adopted on Tuesday a blacklist of tax havens which includes 17 extra-EU jurisdictions seen as not cooperative on tax matters, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates are the countries listed, officials said.

Le Maire said that other 47 jurisdictions are included in a public "grey" list of countries that are currently not compliant with EU standards but have committed to change their tax rules.

Following multiple disclosures of offshore tax avoidance schemes by companies and wealthy individuals, EU states launched a process in February to list tax havens in a bid to discourage setting up shell structures abroad which are themselves in many cases legal but could hide illicit activities.

Blacklisted countries could lose access to EU funds. Other possible countermeasures will be decided in coming weeks, Le Maire said.

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Bahrain seeks Qatar's suspension from GCC

Bahrain's foreign minister on Monday suggested suspending Qatar's Gulf Cooperation Council membership until it accepts the demands of its Arab adversaries in the region's worst crisis in years.

"The correct step to preserve the GCC would be to freeze Qatar's membership until it sees reason and accepts the demands of our countries. If not, we will be fine with it leaving the GCC," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said on Twitter.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Shiite rival Iran, charges Doha has denied.

Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait.

Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could cause the six-nation bloc's demise.

Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate.

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Gulf crisis: Saudi Arabia, allies issue Qatar-linked 'terrorism' list

Saudi Arabia and its allies, which have cut ties with Doha issued a list of individuals and entities they believe are linked to Qatar over "terrorism", on Friday.

"This list is connected to Qatar and serves suspicious agendas in an indication of the duality of Qatar policies," said the statement from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain.

"It shows that Qatar announces fighting terrorism on one hand and finances and supports and hosts different terrorist organisations on the other hand," they said.

The list, however, contains at least two names already designated internationally as terrorist financiers, and against whom Qatar took action, according to a previous US Department of State report.

Those two, Sa'd al-Ka'bi and Abd al-Latif al-Kawari, are among dozens of individuals and entities named by Saudi Arabia and its three allies.

"The four countries agreed on categorising 59 persons and 12 entities in their list of terrorism," they said affirming "that they won't be lenient in pursuing" such persons and groups.
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