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Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Consequently, Antigua and Barbuda signed an Article 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 three Caribbean nations giving up U.S. military support because of the ASPA sanction. Trinidad and Tobago, which played a leading function in the facility of the ICC, has actually strongly withstood signing an agreement, as has Barbados. (For extra info see CRS Report RL33337, Article 98 Agreements and Sanctions on U.S. Foreign Aid to Latin America, by [author name scrubbed]) Because of their geographic area, many Caribbean nations are transit countries for cocaine and heroin from South America destined for the U.S.
In addition, 2 Caribbean countries, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadinesare large manufacturers and exporters of cannabis. Of the 16 nations in the Caribbean area, President Bush in September 2006 designated four of them as significant drug-producing or drug-transit countries pursuant to annual legal drug certification requirements: the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. The President urged the brand-new federal government in Haiti to reinforce law enforcement and the judiciary to bring drug trafficking and crime under control. All 4 designated Caribbean countries are major transit countries for illicit bluegreen mortgage department phone number drugs to the U.S. market, and Jamaica is the largest cannabis producer and exporter in the Caribbean.
The Dominican Republic, a significant transit country for both cocaine and heroin, complies carefully with the United States, although the State Department's March 2006 International Narcotics Control Technique Report notes that "corruption and weak governmental organizations remained an impediment to controlling the circulation of unlawful narcotics" through the nation. Jamaican cooperation with U.S. law enforcement firms on counternarcotics efforts is explained by the State Department report as exceptional in many cases, although it keeps that the government requires to further intensify its law enforcement efforts and improve global cooperation. In Haiti, anti-drug efforts have been hindered over the years by weak organizations, bad financial conditions, and political instability.
Many other Caribbean countries, while not designated major transit countries, are still susceptible to drug trafficking and associated criminal offenses because of their geographic place. In specific, the State Department's March 2006 report keeps that such crimes have the prospective to threaten the stability of the little states of the Eastern Caribbean, and to differing degrees, have harmed civil society in some of these countries. Offered the poor outlook for the banana market in the Caribbean, some observers believe that it will be difficult to include marijuana production unless there is adequate assistance to diversify these economies far from banana production.

Vincent and the Grenadines is the largest marijuana producer in the Eastern Caribbean. Efforts to punish floating timeshare cash laundering likewise make up a major component of U.S. Which of these arguments might be used by someone who supports strict campaign finance laws?. anti-drug method, and ended up being progressively important as a counter-terrorist strategy in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The State Department's list of significant cash laundering countries (also classified as "jurisdictions of main concern") 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 detailed legislation to regulate its financial sector, the country stays vulnerable to cash laundering since the sector is loosely controlled and due to the fact that of its Web video gaming industry.

In Belize, cash laundering is believed to take place mostly in the nation's growing offshore monetary center. Cash laundering in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti originate from their roles as major drug transhipment points. In the Dominican Republic, financial institutions participate in transactions with money obtained from controlled substance sales in the United States, with courier and wire transfers the primary methods for moving the funds. St. Kitts and Nevis, according to the State Department, is at major danger for corruption and money laundering due to the fact that 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 significant aspect in Caribbean countries improving their anti-money laundering routines. 4 Caribbean nations and one reliant area were on the very 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 included to the list in September 2001. Subsequent actions by all these countries to enhance their anti-money laundering programs led to all of them being eliminated 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 removed from the list, the FATF continues to monitor developments in the nation to guarantee compliance. Some Caribbean officials and others have complained that pressure to reinforce and impose anti-money laundering routines in the region will have a detrimental impact on its overseas monetary sectors. They maintain that the anti-money laundering steps required have actually been indiscriminate and make up an attack on legitimate organization conducted in the little monetary sectors of the region. In specific, after the U.S. congressional passage of brand-new anti-money laundering arrangements in the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56, Title III), authorized in the after-effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks, some feared that the more stringent examination of transactions between U.S.
The act's anti-money laundering provisions include a restriction on U.S. reporter accounts with shell banks (banks that have no physical existence in the chartering country) and tighter Visit website bank record keeping requirements. Some observers maintain that the fortifying of anti-money laundering regimes in the Caribbean will have completion outcome of increasing the attractiveness of the area's offshore financial sectors for legitimate service deals. According to this view, such efforts as the FATF evaluative process and the newer anti-money laundering measures under the PATRIOT Act will assist change the reputation of the Caribbean as being a haven for cash launderers and tax evaders.
In 1983, Congress enacted the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) (P.L. 98-67), the centerpiece of a wider U.S. foreign policy effort called the Caribbean Basin Effort (CBI) linking Central America and Caribbean countries together under one preferential trade program. The CBERA permitted duty-free importation of lots of categories of items with certain exceptions. A lot of clothing and fabric items were disqualified under the CBERA, but in the late 1980s imports of apparel from CBERA nations that were assembled from U.S. components were eligible for lowered duties. These production-sharing plans improved the clothing sectors of numerous Caribbean Basin countries, consisting of most significantly the Dominican Republic.