Panama Papers prove Mr. Sanders was wrong about a trade pact with Panama

[reACTIONary]

The Panama Papers prove Mr. Sanders was wrong about a trade pact with Panama

http://wapo.st/23j3sZK

“I predicted that the passage of this disastrous trade deal would make it easier, not harder, for the wealthy and large corporations to evade taxes by sheltering billions of dollars offshore,”.... The evidence, however, suggests that the truth is pretty nearly the opposite of what Mr. Sanders claims ... the number of offshore incorporations fell from 4,741 in 2005 to 835 in 2015. Most important, as of last year Mossack Fonseca appeared to have nearly completely ceased incorporating the least transparent form of company — known as “bearer shares”

The Obama administration, backed by members of Congress, made it clear the free-trade deal... hinged on a separate agreement granting U.S. tax authorities more access to Panama’s financial system. The United States particularly insisted on plugging the “bearer shares” loophole.

It looks like the Obama administration’s diplomacy resulted in real progress, and that if anyone’s entitled to say “I told you so” about that, it would be Ms. Clinton.

[Squinch]

1. As usual. The opposite of what he said would happen is what happened.

[revbones]

2. Up is down now. Good to know. rofl nt

[Octafish]

3. More gaslighting from WaPo.

Capehart by Committee.

[reformist2]

5. It's pretty weird to see entire news organizations directing all their firepower at Bernie...

The barrage has been relentless these past few days. Too bad for them nobody outside the ancient establishment reads these rags anymore.

[Octafish]

11. They must be doing it for the future.

Otherwise, why print anything that everyone around knows is a lie?

Bernie Sanders On the Panama Papers: Told You So

by Issie Lapowsky
Wired, March 5, 2016

BACK IN 2011, Bernie Sanders told the Senate that Panama was “a world leader when it comes to allowing large corporations and wealthy Americans to evade US taxes.”

This week, those words are sounding eerily prophetic, and the Sanders campaign, for one, would like to remind you of that fact.

As the world reels from the so-called Panama Papers leak, which exposed the offshore tax havens of world leaders from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Icelandic Prime Minister Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Sanders is calling attention to his opposition to the 2011 Panama Trade Agreement.

“I was opposed to the Panama Free Trade Agreement from day one,” Sanders said in a statement today. “I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared.”

As president, Sanders says he would terminate the agreement within his first six months in office and “conduct an immediate investigation into US banks, corporations, and wealthy individuals who have been stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes.”

So far, news on Americans implicated in the Panama Papers scandal has been scarce, though early reports show that 211 names included in the leak correspond to US addresses. Still, given just how much data was leaked—a whopping 2.6 terabytes—it will likely be a while until the journalists involved in the investigation can sort through it all.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/bernie-sanders-panama-papers-told/

Bezos must need the money. Wishing long life to ALL, anyway.

[Lucinda]

4. KNR

[CentralCoaster]

6. Only a shallow review of this legislation and its effects could lead to such a conclusion.

I call bullshit on the Washington Post.

[Meteor Man]

7. The Washington Consensus Strikes Back!

Surprise, surprise! The neo-liberal WaPo editorial board shills for "free trade" agreements. Three cheers for the M$M!

[think]

8. Public Citizen: "Panama Papers Leak Proves FTA Has Done Nothing to End Country’s Financial Crime"

Panama Papers Leak Proves FTA Has Done Nothing to End Country’s
Financial Crime, Highlights False Promises Used to Sell Pact

April 4, 2016


Statement of Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

“Nearly five years after the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement (FTA) vote, the Panama Paper leak
proves once again how entirely cynical and meaningless are the American presidents’ and corporate
boosters’ lavish promises of economic benefits and policy reforms from trade agreements. The top
promise about the benefit of the U.S.-Panama FTA was that it would end Panama’s financial crime
secrecy protections and tax haven and money laundering activities, but what this leak shows is that, if
anything, Panama’s outrageous financial crime facilitation has intensified while the FTA’s investor
protections and official U.S. stamp of approval have increased inflows of dirty money to Panama.
Now, the same cast of characters is making equally outlandish promises of the benefits of the TPP,
while increasingly past supporters of these pacts are joining long-term critics in saying that not only
will the TPP not deliver economic gains for most Americans or improvement in labor, environmental
or human rights policy among its signatories, but that, in fact, it will follow the pattern of past pacts
and make things worse.”

Background: Panama Tax Haven Status Continues Unabated: The Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, which tracks countries’ tax haven statuses, reported that Panama
remains one of just 11 nations in the world that has not passed a first-stage review of its tax
transparency measures, due to nonconformity on basic regulatory checks against tax evasion. Even the
Cayman Islands did not earn that dubious distinction. To counter criticism that the Panama FTA would
assist corporations seeking to dodge U.S. taxes via secretive Panama-based subsidiaries and bank
accounts, in late 2010 the Obama administration announced a new Tax Information Exchange
Agreement with Panama. However, a loophole in that agreement allows Panama to sidestep new tax
transparency provisions if they are “contrary to the public policy” of Panama, an interesting concept
for a country that earns much of its revenue by providing strict banking secrecy and tax-free status for
foreign firms incorporated there.

For more information on this topic:
www.citizen.org/panama-fta
www.citizen.org/documents/fta-trifecta-factsheet.pdf

http://www.citizen.org/documents/Panama-Papers-Statement.pdf

[rachacha]

9. #WhichWashingtonPost ...the one that said Hillary called Bernie unqualified?

Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president

[Wilms]

10. "granting U.S. tax authorities more access to Panama’s financial system"

Gee. I thought it was a leak and newspapers sifting through the documents.

You post that with a straight face?

[betsuni]

12. K&R