Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Consequently, Antigua and switch it timeshare Barbuda signed a Post 98 contract in September 2003; Belize signed one in December 2003; and Dominica signed one in May 2004. This leaves Barbados, St. Vincent, and Trinidad and Tobago as the 3 Caribbean countries forgoing U.S. military help because of the ASPA sanction. Trinidad and Tobago, which played a leading function in the establishment of the ICC, has highly withstood signing a contract, as has Barbados. (For additional details see CRS Report RL33337, Post 98 Contracts and Sanctions on U.S. Foreign Aid to Latin America, by [author name scrubbed]) Since of their geographical place, lots of Caribbean countries are transit countries for cocaine and heroin from South America predestined for the U.S.

In addition, 2 Caribbean countries, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadinesare big manufacturers and exporters of cannabis. Of the 16 nations in the Caribbean area, President Bush in September 2006 designated four of them as major drug-producing or drug-transit nations pursuant to yearly legal drug accreditation requirements: the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. The President urged the new federal government in Haiti to enhance police and the judiciary to bring drug trafficking and criminal offense under control. All 4 designated Caribbean countries are major transit nations for illicit drugs to the U.S. market, and Jamaica is the largest marijuana producer and exporter in the Caribbean.

The Dominican Republic, a significant transit country for both drug and heroin, works together closely with the United States, although the State Department's March 2006 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report notes that "corruption and weak governmental institutions remained an obstacle to controlling the flow of prohibited narcotics" through the country. Jamaican cooperation with U.S. police on counternarcotics efforts is described by the State Department report as exceptional in most cases, although it maintains that the federal government requires to further intensify its police efforts and improve international cooperation. In Haiti, anti-drug efforts have been hampered for many years by weak organizations, bad financial conditions, and political instability.

Many other Caribbean nations, while not designated significant transit countries, are still vulnerable to drug trafficking and associated criminal offenses since of their geographical area. In specific, the State Department's March 2006 report preserves that such criminal offenses have the prospective to threaten the stability of the little states of the Eastern Caribbean, and to varying degrees, have actually harmed civil society in some of these countries. Offered the bad outlook for the banana market in the Caribbean, some observers believe that it will be challenging to contain cannabis production unless there is sufficient assistance to diversify these economies away from banana production.

Vincent and the Grenadines is the largest cannabis manufacturer in the Eastern Caribbean. Efforts to crack down on cash laundering also constitute a significant element of U.S. Which of the following can be described as involving direct finance. anti-drug technique, and became significantly important as a counter-terrorist method in the consequences of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The State Department's Look at more info list of major cash laundering nations (likewise classified as "jurisdictions of main issue") includes 6 Caribbean countries, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and St. Kitts and Nevisand one British Caribbean dependence, the Cayman Islands. The Department of State maintains that although Antigua and Barbuda has thorough legislation to control its financial sector, the nation stays susceptible to cash laundering due to the fact that the sector is loosely regulated and since of its Web gaming industry.

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In Belize, money laundering is believed to occur primarily in the country's growing offshore financial center. Cash laundering in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti stem from their roles as major drug transhipment points. In the Dominican Republic, monetary organizations engage in transactions with cash originated from controlled substance sales in the United States, with courier and wire transfers the main techniques for moving the funds. St. Kitts and Nevis, according to the State Department, is at significant risk for corruption and cash laundering because of the high volume of narcotics being trafficked through the country and due to the fact that of the existence of known traffickers on the islands.

The FATF evaluative procedure has been a major consider Caribbean nations enhancing their anti-money laundering regimes. 4 Caribbean nations and one dependent territory 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 contributed to the list in September 2001. what is a vacation club Subsequent actions by all these countries to enhance their anti-money laundering regimes led to all of them being gotten rid of 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 nation is eliminated from the list, the FATF continues to keep track of advancements in the country to ensure compliance. Some Caribbean officials and others have complained that pressure to enhance and impose anti-money laundering routines in the area will have a harmful result on its offshore financial sectors. They keep that the anti-money laundering procedures required have actually been indiscriminate and constitute an attack on genuine business carried out in the little financial sectors of the region. In particular, after the U.S. congressional passage of new anti-money laundering arrangements in the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56, Title III), approved in the after-effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks, some feared that the more stringent analysis of transactions between U.S.

The act's anti-money laundering arrangements consist of a restriction on U.S. correspondent accounts with shell banks (banks that have no physical existence in the chartering nation) and tighter bank record keeping requirements. Some observers keep that the strengthening of anti-money laundering programs in the Caribbean will have the end outcome of increasing the beauty of the area's offshore financial sectors for legitimate business deals. According to this view, such efforts as the FATF evaluative procedure and the newer anti-money laundering measures under the PATRIOT Act will assist alter the track record of the Caribbean as being a sanctuary for money launderers and tax evaders.

In 1983, Congress enacted the Caribbean Basin Economic Healing Act (CBERA) (P.L. 98-67), the centerpiece of a more comprehensive U.S. diplomacy effort understood as the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) connecting Central America and Caribbean countries together under one preferential trade program. The CBERA enabled duty-free importation of numerous classifications of products with certain exceptions. Most garments and textile goods were ineligible under the CBERA, but in the late 1980s imports of clothing from CBERA nations that were put together from U.S. components were eligible for reduced duties. These production-sharing arrangements boosted the garments sectors of numerous Caribbean Basin nations, including most substantially the Dominican Republic.