兩離岸中心反擊稱美國金融透明虛僞
Two leading offshore centres have accused the US of hypocrisy over financial transparency, saying the world’s biggest economy lags behind standards in their own jurisdictions.
兩個主要離岸中心指責美國在金融透明方面虛僞。它們表示，世界最大經濟體在其管轄區域實行的標準已經落後於人。
At an international summit on corruption hosted in London by UK prime minister David Cameron, the US on Thursday came under pressure over its failure to create a register of the real owners of companies registered in the country.
週四，在英國首相戴維•卡梅倫(David Cameron)在倫敦舉行的一次關於腐敗的國際峯會上，美國感覺到了壓力，因爲它沒能建立起記錄國內註冊公司真實股東身份的登記冊。
Allan Bell, chief minister of the Isle of Man, called the US “a major secrecy jurisdiction and tax haven”, saying nearly 10 times more companies were registered in a single building in the low-regulation state of Delaware than in his n McClaughlin, Cayman Islands president, also criticised “hypocrisy” in the global debate, saying the US and other nations should not be exempt from any requirement on standards and referring to Delaware and Wyoming.
馬恩島(Isle of Man)首席部長艾倫•貝爾(Allan Bell)把美國稱爲“一處主要的祕密管轄地和避稅天堂”。他表示，在美國監管較鬆的特拉華州，某一棟大樓裏註冊的公司數量接近馬恩島的10倍。開曼羣島(Cayman Islands)總統奧爾登•麥克勞林(Alden McClaughlin)也批評了這場國際討論中的“虛僞”。他表示，美國和其他國家不應當被監管標準排除在外，並特別提及了美國特拉華州和懷俄明州。
The criticism emphasises how the campaign for financial transparency has shifted focus — from poor countries to offshore tax havens and now to the world’s largest economies. Momentum has gathered since the leak of the Panama Papers last month, although relatively few US companies were implicated.
對美國的批評凸顯出，呼籲提高金融透明度的矛頭所向，繼從貧窮國家轉移到離岸避稅中心後，如今又轉移到了美國。自上月巴拿馬文件(Panama Papers)曝光以來，呼籲力度已有所加強，儘管相對來說，並沒有多少家美國公司被牽扯進該事件。
“Where I get angry is the hypocrisy of the US in particular, which has been preaching to the world about the importance of access to information relevant to the US, but they themselves have not been moving at the same pace [as offshore financial centres],” Mr Bell told the FT.
“讓我特別生氣的是美國的虛僞，它一直在全世界宣揚獲取與美國相關信息的重要性，但他們自己的行動步伐卻沒有（離岸金融中心）那麼大，”貝爾告訴英國《金融時報》。
Mr Cameron himself said the US faced “challenges”, adding: “Delaware has lots of companies registered and not much transparency over them.” He added that Britain’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies such as the Cayman Islands, were “ahead of many developed states” in pledging to establish registers of ownership and automatically share information with foreign tax US had been seen as a leading force in fighting corruption, thanks largely to the 1977 Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act. But its commitments ahead of Thursday’s summit fell well short of campaigners’ demands.
卡梅倫本人表示，美國面臨着“諸多挑戰”。他接着說：“美國特拉華州的註冊公司非常之多，這些公司的情況也不太透明。”他又說，英國的海外領地以及開曼羣島等英國皇家屬地，在承諾登記股東身份並自動分享給外國稅務當局方面，“走在了很多發達國家的前面”。美國一直被視爲全世界在反腐敗領域的一支主要力量，這主要得益於1977年出臺的《反海外腐敗法》( Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act)。但在週四峯會召開之前，美國的承諾遠遠低於呼籲者們的要求。
The Obama administration said last week that it had submitted draft legislation to Congress requiring companies to disclose their real ownership to the US Treasury. But legislative approval will be difficult and any information would not be publicly accessible.
奧巴馬政府(Obama)上週表示，已經向國會提交了一項法案，要求境內註冊的公司向美國財政部披露其真正股東的身份。但該法案將很難在國會通過，任何信息都將無法公開獲得。
