U.S., Panama Sign Tax Information Pact That May Help Trade Deal
The U.S. and Panama today signed a tax-information exchange agreement that will allow both countries to seek bank account and other information from each other.
“Today, we are ushering in a new era of openness and transparency for tax information between the United States and Panama,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in a statement about the pact signed in Washington with Panama’s vice president and foreign affairs minister, Juan Carlos Varela. The agreement covers information starting Nov. 30, 2007, the Treasury said.
The deal may also clear the way for lawmakers in Washington to approve a stalled free-trade pact, Roberto Henriquez, Panama’s minister of trade and industry, said in an interview in Washington earlier this month.
“The Panama deal is ready, it’s easy and it’s good for both countries,” Henriquez said. With the accord, “the U.S. will send the signal that it is serious about integration.”
Lawmakers such as Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, have said Panama would need to sign a tax-exchange deal before they would consider the trade agreement, which was completed in 2007 and has been ratified by Panama’s legislature. President Barack Obama hasn’t submitted the trade agreement to Congress for approval.
‘Delayed for Too Long’
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Dave Camp, a Republican from Michigan, said today that the pact should push the trade agreement forward. “Action on the job-creating U.S.- Panama trade agreement has been delayed for far too long,” Camp said in a statement.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development placed Panama on a list of nations that must share tax data or face sanctions as the Group of 20 nations crack down on banking secrecy. Tax-information agreements, which let officials request details about citizens’ bank accounts in another nation, are needed to ensure that taxpayers have no place to hide their income and assets, according to a report by the organization on Nov. 10.
-- With assistance from Ian Katz in Washington. Editors: Christine Spolar, Christopher Wellisz
To contact the reporters on this story: Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net; Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
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