The Marshall Islands flag has welcomed a decision by the European Union to remove the country from a tax black list.
The islands’ Registrar of Corporations said the EU’s Economic & Financial Affairs Council no longer classes the Pacific nation as “non-cooperative” for tax purposes.
The Marshall Islands has engaged in an “open, transparent dialogue with the EU and made every effort to fully clarify, enact, follow up and monitor the implementation of its commitments to the EU”, the registrar said.
Minister of Finance Casten Nemra said: “We are extremely pleased to hear that the Marshall Islands’ enhanced enforcement measures have been met positively by the EU.
“We take this opportunity to reiterate that the Marshall Islands unequivocally commits to cooperating with the EU and fully aligning with the EU on economic substance standards.”
The ship registry came third in the Paris MOU’s latest white-list flag state rankings, behind only Denmark and Norway.
There were 4,280 inspections of Marshall Islands-flag vessels between 2018 and 2020, with 65 detentions.
The registrar said the country is “renowned for its modern corporate registry and has been the jurisdiction of choice for publicly traded shipping entities, while its maritime registry is consistently held in high regard worldwide”.
The Tokyo MOU also includes it on its white list.
Big in LNG
The flag has maintained Qualship 21 status with the US Coast Guard for 19 consecutive years, which the registrar described as “unprecedented”.
The registry has more than 5,500 vessels totalling about 197m gt on its books.
It claims to have the world’s youngest fleet and has more LNG carriers than any other flag.
The registrar said the country “places great importance on compliance with international standards of corporate governance and taxation and will continue its engagement with the EU and other international institutions to ensure these standards are upheld”.
