EU Adds Fiji, Vanuatu and Marshall Islands to Tax Blacklist

In a surprise move, the European Union has added Fiji, Vanuatu and Marshall Island to its extensive tax blacklist. In a bid to crackdown on tax evaders, the EU came up with the 28-nation list in December 2017.

An official statement by the EU said Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands were facilitating 'offshore structures and arrangements aimed at attracting profits without real economic substance'. And Fiji had kept 'harmful preferential tax regimes'. The three latest additions to the list joins their counterparts - Samoa, American Samoa and Guam.

Meanwhile, Vanuatu's Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu took to Twitter to show his disagreement. The Minister described EU's announcement as "a game when the rules of the game are always changing, the goalposts are always being shifted and there are several different referees."

Although no sanctions have been agreed by the EU states, the blacklisted countries and island nations face reputational damages and stricter controls on transactions with the EU.