Gibraltar Opposition Questions Caruana Over Future Of Offshore Centre

by Caroline Maxwell, Tax-News.com, London

13 February 2002

The Gibraltar opposition Socialist Labour Party issued a statement on Monday questioning inconsistencies between the views expressed by UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and the Rock's Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, on the future of the jurisdiction's offshore finance centre.

Speaking in the House of Commons last week, Mr Straw declared that: 'One thing is certain: the, as it were, duty-free, low tax status of Gibraltar will end over the next four or five years. This has nothing to do with the Government of Spain or the UK.' However, despite - according to the Foreign Secretary - being 'fully aware' of this, in an address to the Chamber of Commerce last week, Gibraltar's Chief Minister stated that there was no threat to the economy.

'The Opposition considers that if Mr Caruana is aware of the situation it is very odd that he has not said anything about it to the Opposition, the House of Assembly, the general public, or even the people in the industry,' the GSLP commented.

The Opposition noted that it was necessary to clear up the web of confusion which has arisen over the jurisdiction's offshore sector as a result of EU pressure, the Anglo-Spanish talks, and OECD initiatives, and to establish whether: 'Mr Straw knows what he is talking about'.

'If there is a need to do away with our special fiscal status which allows a different duty and tax regime from the rest of the EU then this has to be identified and debated in the House of Assembly and would involve a major reorganisation of the economic direction that Gibraltar has been following since we joined the EU in 1973,' the party's statement concluded.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has resorted to desperate measures with regard to the issue of Gibraltarian sovereignty, going over the heads of the British Government to appeal to...well...the Sovereign.

In his message on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, Peter Caruana asked The Queen and her successors to reign over the territory 'exclusively and indefinitely'.

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