LONDON: David Cameron’s key objectives at the G8 summit next week — cracking down on tax havens, launching EU-US trade talks and progress to a Syrian peace conference — were still meeting resistance on Thursday night as he battled to win over key allies.
The prime minister is chairing the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday next week, and is battling to break through the interlocking diplomatic and economic agendas. He looked to be closer to a breakthrough on improving tax co-operation in UK overseas territories and crown dependencies.
Bermuda joined the British Virgin Islands by apparently accepting that it should sign an existing OECD agreement to transfer tax information on request. The Bermudan premier, Craig Cannonier, said: “I want to clarify that Bermuda is strongly committed to joining the multilateral convention on tax information sharing. I am encouraged that other overseas territories are also committed to joining the convention.”
Earlier Cannonier had hinted that he was only willing to agree to sign in principle.
Downing Street officials admitted that the revelation in the Guardian last week of Cameron’s plan to summon the crown dependencies to a meeting tomorrow before the G8 had led to resistance from some countries. The prime minister was meeting continued resistance from his Canadian counterpart, Stephen Harper, over critical plans to require countries to reveal the true beneficial owners of shell companies and trusts.
Cameron laid on the diplomatic red carpet for Harpe, giving him the rare honour of speaking to both houses of parliament, a visit to Queen Elizabeth and a lengthy bilateral meeting at Downing Street. But Harper is worried about exposing private Canadian tax affairs and fears complications arising from Canada’s federal structure.
In a crucial advance for Cameron, a US Treasury spokesman said: “We view the G8 as an important opportunity to make progress on cracking down on criminal and illicit actors who use shell companies to hide their true identity.”
By arrangement with the Guardian
