Political commentator Edmund G. Maduro believes the agreement with the US Treasury Department signed yesterday June 30 by Premier Dr. the Hon D. Orlando Smith is unconstitutional. Photo: VINO/File

The signing took place in Washington DC yesterday June 30, 2014 and Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon D. Orlando Smith made the trip to sign the agreement. Photo: VINO/File

Columnist Alred C. Frett believes the agreement leaves the Virgin Islands between "a rock and a hard place." Photo: VINO/File

The signing took place in Washington DC yesterday June 30, 2014 and Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Honourable D. Orlando Smith made the trip to sign the agreement.

“That agreement is unconstitutional in the United States and in the British Virgin Islands. The United States cannot impose its laws on a foreign country and the British Virgin Islands cannot adopt American behaviour,” said Maduro in a comment to this news site today July 1, 2014.

“There is an international measure for the United States or any foreign government to get information from the British Government or the British Virgin Islands and that is the only way they can do it,” he said.

“Our Constitution gives us the right of freedom of our information. Dr. Smith cannot sign that away. This is the ignorance that is going on. It is ignorance and I am prepared to call him a fool,” said Maduro.

“We put him in there to represent our rights and they are giving it away,” said Maduro. “Dr. Smith cannot read and understand the English language,” he said.

“And the Governor is 10 times wrong because this arrangement should not be signed by Dr. Smith at all. International business must be done by Britain and the Governor represents Britain…that [agreement] should not be valid in the first place,” said Maduro.

He said that even if Dr. Smith was given the right to negotiate the agreement, international relations must be done by Britain.

“These things must be according to law…according to the people’s Constitution. Dr. Smith must understand that we are not a dictatorship. We have a Government that is called representative democracy and within the Constitution they must behave accordingly,” said Maduro.

Premier Smith in a press statement said, “The formal signing of the IGA is the final step in this phase of FATCA implementation. This signing allows financial institutions organised in the Virgin Islands to prepare for the implementation of FATCA on the basis that there will be an effective IGA in place by January 1, 2015.”

On April 4, 2013 Government of the Virgin Islands announced that it would enter into negotiations with the US Government with the objective of finalising a Model 1B intergovernmental agreement (IGA) in relation to the US FATCA.

FATCA is a United States federal law that requires United States persons living outside the United States to report, among other things, their income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Columnist and commentator Alred C. Frett believes the agreement leaves the Virgin Islands between a rock and a hard place. “It is something that I spoke about long before it was out in the open. It is something that the Government had no choice in,” said Frett in a comment to this news site.