Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Maxine McClean.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Maxine McClean, recently revealed that Barbados has made concrete steps to promote, both internally and externally, its reasonable ambition to become a commercial arbitration centre.
However, the Senator, who was at the time addressing the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Young Arbitrators Forum (YAF) Caribbean Series, held at Hilton Barbados Resort, made it clear that the country is under no illusion as to the competition that already exists in the market.
“We also understand that successful arbitrations require a level of experience and expertise that cannot be readily found in all jurisdictions. This constitutes a significant opportunity for professionals and entrepreneurs who want to explore resultant business opportunities.”
Senator McClean also acknowledged that the private settlement of fiscal disputes under tax treaties is a niche in arbitration that Barbados could do well to focus on.
She said that already there are a number of treaty arrangements with African countries, which now include at least three variations of tax treaty arbitration.
“Given Barbados’ ac-celerated programme of relationship building in Africa and our facility with issues related to international tax, we are keen to explore how we could build out such an agenda,” she indicated.
Friday’s forum was the second event in the series of educational conferences and workshops held by the ICC on contemporary arbitration issues. The major themes for this Barbados workshop were “Entrepreneurship and Commercial Arbitration”, which explored the relationship between starting a business or firm and the uses of international commercial arbitration; as well as “Barbados Entities as Vehicles for Investment Disputes”, focusing on the legal nature of trusts and other investment vehicles in Barbados and the region and when those vehicles can be used in an international arbitration context.
“This is one important reason why as a Government we are keen to hear the outcome of the discussion on access to arbitration under investment and tax treaties using vehicles like trusts, which have been a staple of our international business and financial services products,” Senator McClean added. (TL)
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