EU puts 17 nations on blacklist in bid to beat tax avoidance

EU Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici

Donal O'Donovan

The European Union agreed on a blacklist of 17 countries on Tuesday, with named states potentially facing sanctions and the loss of aid for failing to tackle tax avoidance.

The group of jurisdictions, which was rubber stamped by EU finance ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, includes South Korea, Panama, Bahrain, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Barbados, Samoa, American Samoa, Grenada, Guam, Macau, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, according to the EU.