Ukraine adds five more countries to its list of offshore zones

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has added Trinidad and Tobago, Namibia, Guam, Palau, and American Samoa to the list of offshore zones.

The decision was made at a government meeting on December 27, the news outlet liga.net reported with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

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Ukraine periodically updates its list of offshore zones, taking into account the data of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Cabinet said.

"The Forum has formed a 'black list' of countries that are not set to cooperate on tax issues and do not implement the OECD standards, to which these countries have been added," the report said.

The decision is expected to more effectively prevent and counter money laundering, as well as the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons.

In 2017, the Ukrainian government expanded the list of countries whose operations with counterparties fall under control as part of the administration of the transfer pricing law. Guadalupe, Guatemala, French Guiana, the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Iran, Cuba, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Malta, Morocco, Monaco, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Georgia, Hungary were added to the list. The total number of countries on this list has increased to 85.