ANGUILLA
RIGHTS
AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
(1)
A reading of the
international press over the past several years reveals that there is growing
pressure on the UK government to rationalize the status of the British
Dependent Territories (BDTs).
(2)
During the year 1998 the
Labour Government in the United Kingdom will continue the exercise begun under
the previous Conservative regime of reviewing the constitutional status of the
BDTs. The likelihood is that within the
next 5 years all BDTs will either be Overseas Territories of Europe (OTs) or
will have gone independent. The British
Government will shortly place on the table for the BDTs to discuss a proposal
to abolish BDT citizenship and to make all BDT citizens full British citizens.
(3)
Pressure has principally
come from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), headquartered in Geneva,
concerned about the extent to which London and the BDTs are used by
international criminals to launder hundreds of billions of illegal money each
year. (London is internationally
recognised as one of the world’s largest launderers of illegal money. Among the BDTs, Jersey and Cayman are two of
the world’s largest offshore financial centres.
Cayman alone is the world’s 4th largest banking centre. Bermuda is one of the world’s largest
reinsurance centres). The Anguillian
Government, with the assistance of various professionals on the island, is
presently striving to develop Anguilla’s financial services industry.
(4)
Anguilla has selected as its
chosen tax regime a zero income tax system.
We pay for government services by taxing imports and consumption. We have no taxes on income, profits, capital
growth, dividends, royalties or interest.
Such a tax regime makes us attractive to international business persons
as a jurisdiction to establish their trading and investment vehicles in pursuit
of their international ventures. If
Anguilla can build on its incipient financial services industry, there will in
due course develop in Anguilla a viable alternative and additional industry to
the present fragile sole industry of Anguilla, tourism. All of this is anathema to the bureaucracies
of Washington and Brussels. Especially
if, as at present, we refuse to respect, far less enforce, the punitive tax
regimes of those countries.
(5)
Pressure is building up from
the European Union bureaucracy in Brussels (EU) to have the Dutch, French and
British rationalize and homogenize their OTs.
The Brussels civil servants of the EU do not understand how to deal with
OT extensions of their European members, and want to have one rule applying to
all of them. Brussels preferably would
like all of the OTs to be treated as homogenous extensions of Europe, so as to
present a minimum of complexity for administration.
(6)
The consequence of the above
influences and trends is that pressure will inexorably build on the British
Government in the years ahead to impose centralized regulation, and to increase
and enforce taxation on the BTDs.
Administrative convenience for central regulators, intelligence gatherers,
and law enforcers, will be the touchstone of future policy development. The needs and concerns of small island
territories will be brushed aside, as the OTs are more and more marginalized to
suit the convenience of the major players on the world stage.
(7)
The package offered to us
will be wrapped in something called “good governance”. We will be told that as OTs we will enjoy the
privileges of EU membership, but that privileges come with responsibilities. We will be told that Britain has obligations
to ensure that her OTs meet the high standards of transparency, human rights,
and respect for law, expected by her European partners. We will be told that as OTs we will have to
give up some of our rights and customs to be able to meet this high standard
expected of us. We must view all such
approaches skeptically, and refuse to be drawn into what may be a baited trap.
(8)
The conferring of full
British citizenship on us in place of BDT citizenship will confer some
advantages on us. At present we are not
allowed to work in Britain without a work permit. If we wish to holiday in Europe we have to
obtain a visa. British citizenship will
allow the few of us who wish to visit Paris, London or Berlin the freedom to do
so. At present there is full employment
in Anguilla, and there are few of us who would want to work in London or
Paris. With British citizenship, that
option would be available to the few of us who would wish to pursue a career in
those capitals, and who are presently obstructed from doing so. For the sake of our children, some of us may
want to relocate to a part of the worlds where there are more opportunities
than in our small island. In the event
of a downturn in the Anguilla economy at some date in the future, increased
options for finding employment in Europe through our holding British
citizenship will appear an even bigger advantage than it does now. At present, few if any advantages are
apparent to us by our acquiring full British citizenship.
(9)
It has been estimated that
some 3% only of BDT citizens remain after the departure of Hong Kong. There are fewer BDT citizens who would wish
to emigrate and go to live in Europe in any one year than there are East
Europeans, Asians and Africans that land illegally on the beaches of Europe each
day. Giving the people of our small
island full British citizenship does not pose any kind of cultural or social
threat to the UK or to Europe.
(10) British
citizenship with full reciprocity, by contrast, poses an immense threat to the
people of our small territories.
Anguillians have as an example of what to avoid the neighbouring island
of French St Martin. In 1970 the
population of French St Martiners, mainly native-born, was probably less than
15,000. By 1997 that population had
increased to over an estimated 50,000, most of them from Metropolitan
France. Hardly a native St Martiner is
to be seen in the streets of French St Martin today. Native St Martiners are a disgruntled and
displaced minority in their own country.
The very peddlers in the market-place are metropolitan Frenchmen. Anguillians are resolved that such a fate
will not befall us. We will accept
British Citizenship only on the basis that there is not reciprocity, and
Anguillians are permitted to preserve our culture and society.
(11) In
the event that the conferring on us of British Citizenship would in our view
have the consequence of doing harm to our identity, culture, society, and legal
and constitution systems, then we would opt to retain our existing BDT
Citizenship. If the disadvantages of
full British Citizenship outweigh the advantages, then it would be pointless
for us to give up the advantages we presently have. The bureaucracy in Brussels might find it
more convenient not to have to deal with us on our terms. But, the convenience to Brussels is far
outweighed by the right of us Anguillians to retain our legal, constitutional,
social and cultural systems.
(12) The
concerns of the FATF over money laundering and the international drugs trade
are noted. However, we in Anguilla have
learned over the years that the sensationalist international press has blown
the involvement of the BDT banking system in illegal money laundering
activities out of all proportion. We
suspect that the real target is not the drugs trade, but the many financial
refugees from the litigation racket and tax burdens of European and North
American states, who seek refuge for their hard-earned and at-risk assets in
our offshore financial centres.
(13) Anguilla
has few natural resources besides the sea, sand and sun that surround us, and
the skills and wit of its well-educated population. We exploit the first of these two “natural resources”
through the tourist industry. We have determined to apply the second of our
“natural resources” to our lack of income, gift, profit, and death taxes, to
develop a viable international financial services industry. Anguilla is already a regional financial
centre. According to Eastern Caribbean
Central Bank reports, Anguilla banks two-thirds of the foreign currency
circulating in the Eastern Caribbean.
Anguilla is determined within the next 20 years to be a major financial
services centre, recognised world-wide, not just regionally.
(14) The
provision of offshore financial services will offer our young people a variety
of professional, business and employment opportunities that do not presently
exist. We as a government and the
private sector have embraced offshore financial services as an acceptable
industry for Anguilla. No other industry
offers young Anguillians so many career opportunities and produces so few
industrial pollutants as the international financial services industry. Anguilla has resolved not to impose any
system of direct taxation on its people or on those who use our jurisdiction to
effect aspects of their international trade and business.
(15) With
the above in mind, what are some of the basic, non-negotiable, elements of
Anguillian society and community that our leaders should keep in focus at all
times in discussions with the Europeans on the coming change of status of
Anguilla as a BOT? The following list is
not exhaustive. It includes:
(a) Retention
of the Anguilla Constitution (as amended by Anguillians from time to time) as
the supreme constitutional document of the land;
(b) Retention
of the House of Assembly to enact allows, other than those that can
constitutionally be enacted at Westminster, that will be enforceable on the
people of Anguilla;
(c) Retention
of full internal self-government;
(d) Retention
of our present right that no taxation be imposed without the consent of the
people of Anguilla;
(e) Retention
of the constitutional status of Anguillian Belongership with all the rights and
privileges of Anguilla Belongership;
(f) A
reduction of the reserved powers of the Governor, and an increase in the powers
of the locally elected government;
(g) Allowing
Anguillians the constitutional right to secede or withdraw as an OT and from
the EU at any time its people should agree to do so, eg, to join a wider West
Indian nation should that development ever arise.
Committee3:
Don Mitchell QC
(Chairman)
Hon Hubert Hughes
Ms Ijahniah Christian
Dr Phyllis
Fleming-Banks
Ms Josephine Gumbs
Mr Alistair
Richardson
Pastor
Cecil Richardson
19
January 1998
