Panama FTA Empowers Tax Dodgers

Members of NY CTC distributed leaflets asking people to call on their members of congress to vote NO on the proposed free trade agreement with Panama, a notorious tax haven.  Folks learned that the Panama FTA would lock in many of Panama’s weak bank secrecy rules; it would grant thousands of Panamanian-chartered subsidiaries NAFTA-style investor rights enabling them to challenge U.S. public interest laws, financial regulations and other policies in international tribunals that circumvent the U.S. judicial system; and that on the campaign trail, then-candidate Obama argued, “It’s time to close corporate loopholes, shut offshore tax havens, and restore fairness to the tax code.”