The chief executive of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission is warning against allowing US and European fiscal imperialism in Asia.
The boss of Hong Kong’s financial watchdog has called for the authorities to take a greater role in global regulatory dialogue to prevent the US and EU from imposing their rules on region, reports the Global Legal Post.
…He told delegates: ‘If Asia does not get properly involved in the global regulatory agenda, we will find that the US and European rules will be extended to us whether we like it or not.’
The biggest and most costly rule being imposed on the region is FATCA, an effort by the US to conscript foreign banks as agents for the IRS, and to have them pay for the pleasure.
I recently wrote in Forbes that the best course of acti0n is for nations to reject US demands that they relinquish their fiscal sovereignty:
CF&P President Andrew Quinlan urges nations to resist FATCA
As lawmaker fantasy runs aground on the rough shores of reality, the Treasury Department is stuck trying to implement a bad law full of dangerous ambiguity. So poorly conceived was the legislation that Treasury has repeatedly delayed its full implementation. Moreover, realizing that the legislation is largely unenforceable as written, they’ve begun negotiating directly with governments in hopes that they’ll preemptively sign away their fiscal sovereignty in exchange for promises of reciprocity. But Treasury has no authority to make these promises.
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Today the Treasury Department is negotiating with more than 50 countries in an effort to implement FATCA… But governments are doing themselves and their financial industries a disservice by contemplating entering into FATCA agreements with the U.S. Backlash against the law is growing, and Treasury is in a race against time to lock it into place before a repeal effort can gain steam.
…As Treasury continues to set new policy behind the backs of Congress, and further drag domestic banks into the FATCA crosshairs, opposition to the law will hopefully grow. But it is necessary for financial institutions, both foreign and domestic, to stand up against the law, and for Congress to step in, rein in the Treasury Department, and undo a mess that they are ultimately responsible for creating.
I also brought a similar message to the 36th Annual Conference on the Caribbean and Central America, where I counseled that “The more everyone believes that there is nothing they can do to stop FATCA, the truer it becomes.” Let’s hope that Hong Kong has taken this message to heart and is joining the growing chorus of opposition to destructive US fiscal imperialism. FATCA will cost the US investment and jobs, but if enough nations stand up and fight then the US might be spared the consequences of its self-destructive agenda.
