U.S.-Panama FTA Would Allow Offshore Companies to Attack U.S. Anti-Tax Haven Regulations;Meanwhile Panama Has Not Eliminated Financial Secrecy, Tax Haven Problems http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2011/03/us-panama-fta-would-allow-offshore-companies-to-attack-us-anti-tax-haven-regulations-meanwhile-panam.html

Before voting on any FTA, those in the U.S. Congress who have long raised concerns about Panama’s financial secrecy will want to be able to verify that newly announced changes in the country’s policy are resulting in real changes in practice. This would include seeing a sustained record of prompt compliance with U.S. government requests for tax information exchange under the non-automatic TIEA. Financial secrecy legislation has to be comprehensive, and bearer shares must be fully eliminated and immobilized.Verifying that Panama is actually making these changes will take some time. Usefully, this gives the Obama administration the space to modify the actual terms of the FTA negotiated by the Bush administration that would make fighting tax haven abuses difficult. 

For instance, the current FTA constrains one of the most important tools policymakers have in fighting financial crimes and wrongdoing – restrictions on transfers to and from the countries that provide financial secrecy like Panama. Moreover, the FTA gives the tax haven government of Panama and the 400,000 corporations registered there new rights to challenge U.S. anti-tax haven policies for cash compensation outside of the U.S. judicial system. Read Public Citizen’s report about how the Panama FTA’s current text would make fighting tax havens difficult.