Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar has written to US President Donald Trump asking him whether his government intends to nullify the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
In a two page letter dated January 13, Persad-Bissessar congratulated Trump on his election and said her purpose in writing him was the law enacted by his predecessror Barack Obama which had become the "subject of sharp controversy here in Trinidad and Tobago."
Persad-Bissessar said she wrote the letter because she had urged Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to raise the matter with the new US President and was rebuffed by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, who claimed Trump"did not have time for this."
Noting that a Joint Select Committee of Parliament had started to examine the FATCA Bill, she told Trump: "It would be helpful for us to know if the relevant US law may soon be nullified, either by legislative or executive action, or both."
She reminded Trump that among his campaign promises was revocation of executive actions taken by his predecessor which exceeded his authority as President.
"This would appear to cover non-treaty Inter-Governmental Agreements with Trinidad and Tobago and many other countries to implement FATCA under terms not codified in US statute or treaty terms," she said.
Persad-Bissessar noted that Republican bills to repeal FATCA were introduced in the former US Congress by Senator Rand Paul and Representative Mark Meadows, but went nowhere because of the Democratic controlled Congress.
She said she had been "informed that a FATCA repeal bill might be among the reforms included in Trump's comprehensive legislative package.
"Whatever information you may provide about how your administration intends to proceed would be much appreciated so that the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago may have a better sense how we might proceed," she said.
Persad Bissessar told President Trump she is awaiting his earliest reply.