Marshall Islands off EU blacklist No joy yet for American Samoa, Fiji, Samoa,Vanuatu and Guam

Reuters

European Union finance ministers have agreed to remove Marshall Islands from the bloc’s lists of countries deemed to be acting as tax havens.

The 28-nation EU set up a blacklist and a gray list of tax havens in December 2017 after revelations of widespread avoidance schemes used by corporations and wealthy individuals to lower their tax bills.

Blacklisted states face reputational damage and stricter controls on transactions with the EU.

However the list still includes nine extra-EU jurisdictions – mostly Pacific islands with few financial relations with the EU.

Jurisdictions that remain blacklisted are Belize, Fiji, Oman, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu and the three U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands