It is reported that the EU Economic and Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) will at their meeting on 23 January 2018 remove some countries from the EU’s blacklist of tax havens following commitments made by the countries to improve their tax policy. It has been suggested that countries to be removed from the blacklist may include Panama and South Korea.

The EU Finance Ministers agreed on a blacklist of 17 tax haven countries at their meeting in December 2017 and this was adopted by the EU. The countries and territories blacklisted are American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau SAR, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nambia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. The countries on the blacklist may face restrictions on EU funding or limits on potential investments from the European Investment Bank.

A further 47 countries were included on a graylist of countries pursuing reforms to comply with international standards. Countries removed from the blacklist will be placed on the graylist where their implementation of tax policy commitments will be scrutinized and monitored by the EU.

The screening process for possible blacklisting was put on hold last year for some countries affected by Hurricane Irma. This means that some territories in the Caribbean area will be screened in the early spring when the screening process restarts. The territories that are likely to be scrutinized at that time include British overseas territories such as Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.