Antilles still black listed in several Countries

The Curaçao International Financial Services (CIFA) believes that Government has to make a greater effort to get the Netherlands Antilles off these black lists. The Central Committee of Parliament had a meeting with the CIFA board on Tuesday during which CIFA brought forward its concerns. According to CIFA, this situation is not only harmful to the offshore sector, but also to other sectors as well. Mainly in South America, governments are not aware that the Netherlands Antilles has updated its tax laws and consequently, these countries avoid doing business with the Netherlands Antilles,the association believes that the procedures to sign treaties take too long. The procedures go through the Foreign Affairs Bureau as the Dutch Government must sign the treaties on behalf of the Netherlands Antilles. The Association deems necessary that Government appoints a group of people tasked with dealing with several issues concerning the financial sector.