Georgetown, Mar 28 (Prensa Latina) The Caribbean Community (Caricom) reiterated Thursday its rejection to the inclusion of several of its member states on the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

Such tagging causes irreparable damage to the reputation of its small and highly vulnerable member states, it denounced.

The group noted, in a statement released Thursday, that on Tuesday, March 12, 2019, the EU issued a reviewed list of countries that allegedly did not adhere to good tax governance, including Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago and Bermuda.

Seven other Caricom members were included on a follow-up list that committed to reform until December 2019: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

Caricom emphasized that the description provided by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the European Union (Ecofin) for the inclusion of States is extremely misleading.

At the same time it distorts the response, in good faith, of Community members since the initial inclusion in December 2017.

Caricom member states have acted in good faith to mitigate this atrocious EU action while upholding the shared values and principles underlying the UN Addis Ababa Agenda for Action,' it stressed.

These principles emphasize, among other things, shared responsibility, mutual responsibility, equity, solidarity and different and evolving capacities with respect to mobilizing resources to achieve Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, it added.

However, the compromise process reached between Caricom members and the EU, specifically from 2017 to date, has unfortunately been deprived of the values shared in previous years, it explained.

There is a clear regression to the days of imposed metropolitan policies on those governed,' it remarked.