PANAMA’S National Bar Association has joined business groups calling on the government to impose tough retaliatory measures against Colombia for including Panama on a list of tax havens.

Among the measures it suggests are the repatriation of all Colombian prisoners sentenced by Panamanian courts and a higher tax on remittances sent by Colombians from Panama.

It also suggested suspending the Treaty of Monteria that exonerates Colombian warships from paying the toll to use the Panama Canal and suspending the electrical interconnection project, as well as requiring a visa for Colombians to enter the country.

Another measure which to be applied immediately would be to exclude Colombian companies from public tenders.

Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado was meeting on Friday with Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs María Angela Holguí­n to discuss the problem.