COLOMBIA has brushed aside a call for a withdrawal of its threat to list Panama as a tax haven and on Wednesday, October 15, Colombian Foreign Minister María Angela Holguín announced that the country will get its black listing starting Jan. 1, 2015.

The statements of the minister were made inan interview on RCN Radio. Her comments were made in response to a statement by Panama’s Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado that said Colombia faced a seven-day deadline to remove Panama from the list. Failure to do so would result in retaliatory measures.
As part of her arguments, Holguin noted that Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile and Peru also consider Panama a tax haven.
After a telephone conversation between President Juan Carlos Varela and his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, it was decided to initiate a dialogue to see if a diplomatic solution could be found.
Panama said it would place Colombia on a list of discriminatory countries if the situation is not resolved