Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Subsequently, Antigua and Barbuda signed a Short article 98 agreement in September 2003; Belize signed one in December 2003; and Dominica signed one in Might 2004. This leaves Barbados, St. Vincent, and Trinidad and Tobago as the 3 Caribbean nations forgoing U.S. military help since of the ASPA sanction. Trinidad and Tobago, which played a leading role in the facility of the ICC, has actually highly withstood signing a contract, as has Barbados. (For additional information see CRS Report RL33337, Post 98 Contracts and Sanctions on U.S. Foreign Aid to Latin America, by [author name scrubbed]) Because of their geographic location, numerous Caribbean countries are transit nations for cocaine and heroin from South America predestined for the U.S.
In addition, two Caribbean countries, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadinesare large producers and exporters of cannabis. Of the 16 countries in the Caribbean region, President Bush in September 2006 designated four of them as major drug-producing or drug-transit nations pursuant to annual legal drug certification requirements: the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. The President prompted the new government in Haiti to strengthen law enforcement and the judiciary to bring drug trafficking and crime under control. All 4 designated Caribbean countries are major transit countries for illegal drugs to the floating timeshares U.S. market, and Jamaica is the biggest marijuana producer and exporter in the Caribbean.
The Dominican Republic, a significant transit country for both drug and heroin, complies closely with the United States, although the State Department's March 2006 International Narcotics Control Technique Report keeps in mind that "corruption and weak governmental organizations stayed an impediment to managing the flow of unlawful narcotics" through the country. Jamaican cooperation with U.S. law enforcement agencies on counternarcotics efforts is described by the State Department report as outstanding in the majority of cases, although it maintains that the government needs to further heighten its police efforts and boost worldwide cooperation. In Haiti, anti-drug efforts have actually been hindered throughout the years by weak institutions, bad economic conditions, and political instability.
Lots of other Caribbean nations, while not designated significant transit countries, are still vulnerable to drug trafficking and associated crimes since of their geographic place. In specific, the State Department's March 2006 report preserves that such criminal activities have the possible to threaten the stability of the small states of the Eastern Caribbean, and to differing degrees, have harmed civil society in a few of these nations. Offered the poor outlook for the banana industry in the Caribbean, some observers believe that it will be tough to contain marijuana production unless there is appropriate support to diversify these economies foreclosure on timeshare far from banana production.
Vincent and the Grenadines is the largest cannabis manufacturer in the Eastern Caribbean. Efforts to break down on cash laundering likewise make up a major element of U.S. What happened to yahoo finance portfolios. anti-drug technique, and ended up being increasingly important as a counter-terrorist method in the after-effects of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The State Department's list of major money laundering nations (likewise classified as "jurisdictions of main concern") consists of six Caribbean nations, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and St. Kitts and Nevisand one British Caribbean dependency, the Cayman Islands. The Department of State maintains that although Antigua and Barbuda has comprehensive legislation to manage its financial sector, the nation stays vulnerable to money laundering due to the fact that the sector is loosely controlled and since of its Web gaming industry.
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In Belize, cash laundering is thought to occur mainly in the nation's growing offshore financial center. Cash laundering in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti come from their functions as significant drug transhipment points. In the Dominican Republic, monetary organizations participate in transactions with money derived from controlled substance sales in the United States, with carrier and wire transfers the main approaches for moving the funds. St. Kitts and Nevis, according to the State Department, is at significant risk for corruption and cash laundering since of the high volume of narcotics being trafficked through the nation and since of the presence of known traffickers on the islands.
The FATF evaluative procedure has actually been a significant element in Caribbean countries enhancing their anti-money laundering routines. Four Caribbean countries and one reliant area were on the first FATF non-cooperative list provided in 2000: the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Grenada was added to the list in September 2001. Subsequent actions by all these nations to enhance their anti-money laundering regimes resulted in all of them being removed from the list by June 2003. The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands were removed from the list in June 2001; St. Kitts and Nevis in June 2002; Dominica in October 2002; Grenada in February 2003; and St.
Once a country is eliminated from the list, the FATF continues to keep track of advancements in the country to ensure compliance. Some Caribbean authorities and others have actually grumbled that pressure to strengthen and impose anti-money laundering routines in the area will have a harmful impact on its offshore financial sectors. They keep that the anti-money laundering procedures required have actually been indiscriminate and make up an attack on legitimate service carried out in the small monetary sectors of the region. In specific, after the U.S. congressional passage of brand-new anti-money laundering provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56, Title III), authorized in the consequences of the September 11 terrorist attacks, some feared that the more stringent scrutiny of transactions in between U.S.
The act's anti-money laundering arrangements include a restriction on U.S. correspondent accounts with shell banks (banks that have no physical existence in the chartering country) and tighter bank record keeping requirements. Some observers preserve that the conditioning of anti-money laundering programs in the Caribbean will have the end outcome of increasing the appearance of the region's offshore financial sectors for genuine company transactions. According to this view, such efforts as the FATF evaluative process and the more recent anti-money laundering measures under the PATRIOT Act will help alter the credibility of the Caribbean as being a haven for money launderers and tax evaders.
In 1983, Congress enacted the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) (P.L. 98-67), the focal point of a broader U.S. foreign policy initiative called the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) linking Central America and Caribbean nations together under one preferential trade program. The CBERA allowed duty-free importation of lots of classifications of products with particular exceptions. A lot of clothing and fabric products were disqualified under the CBERA, however in the late 1980s imports of garments from CBERA countries that were assembled from U.S. parts were qualified for decreased duties. These production-sharing arrangements enhanced the clothing sectors of several Caribbean Basin nations, including most considerably the Dominican Republic.