Barbados Promoted To OECD Global Forum Vice Chair

The Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) has welcomed Barbados’s appointment to Vice Chair of the Global Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), saying that the decision validates the jurisdiction’s good standing among international business and financial centers.

Barbados is to take over from Bermuda, for two years starting in 2015. This period coincides with the final preparations for the review process on the new global standards for automatic exchange of information (AEOI) and the next round of reviews for exchange of information (EOI) on request, which will both begin in 2016.

A total of 89 Global Forum member jurisdictions have committed to implement reciprocal exchange of tax information on an automatic basis, with the first exchanges starting from 2017 or 2018, subject to the completion of necessary legislative procedures.

In 2015, jurisdictions will provide AEOI implementation plans so that a report can be made to the Global Forum plenary next year. Reviews are expected to start in 2016, as the legal and regulatory frameworks of jurisdictions committed to first exchanges in 2017 should be finalized by then.

Barbados was also recently removed from Colombia’s tax ‘blacklist’ after agreeing to implement a tax agreement between the two countries.

Connie Smith, the President of BIBA, said, “Barbados now really has to make its voice heard on decisions of national importance to our international business sector, plus the access to which we can now avail ourselves in this select committee will be invaluable.”