Panama has not defined its strategy

PANAMA. The Panamanian banking and financial sectors are worried about the future of the financial center if the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD puts Panama in its black list of tax havens.

The Commerce and Industry Minister, Gisela Alvarez de Porras said that currently she is talking with the different sector, before the government comes out with a strategy and at the same time she is cautious about the countermeasures that Panama could put in place for countries that discriminate against it.

One of them is the “Retortion Law”, which basically prohibits companies and nationals from a country that has classified Panama as a tax haven to do business here. Porras believes that it will diminish the competivity of the nation.

However, there are other individuals that differ from Porras point of view and believes that Panama should defend itself by applying sanctions to countries that are exerting pressure to favor their own banking systems.