THE publishing of white, grey and black lists by the G20 could have worked out better for Guernsey, according to Treasury minister Charles Parkinson.

Last week Guernsey was placed on a white list of 40 co-operative and well-regulated places by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which helps governments tackle challenges in the world’s economy.

However, even those jurisdictions and countries such as Liechtenstein, Cayman Islands and Switzerland, whose tax practices appeared under huge scrutiny, along with Guernsey’s, before the G20 summit in London have at worst been placed only on the grey list of partially compliant jurisdictions.

It has led to Deputy Parkinson (pictured) to suggest the issue has to some extent ‘been fudged’.

‘It’s a badge of honour [to be on a white list] and it’s certainly in the context that Guernsey would wish to be seen, but unfortunately for us the G20, through the OECD, only black-listed three countries in the shape of Malaysia, Costa Rica and the Philippines, as it appears Uruguay has since managed to talk itself off it.

‘But in any case these countries are not very obvious competitors to Guernsey.

‘For us, the best outcome would have been for Guernsey to have been white-listed and our competitors to have been black-listed because we could have picked up a lot of business from them.’