After Panama President Ricardo Martinelli visited France and suggested to his counter part that he retract a comment made at a G-20 Summit meeting about Panama being a tax haven, all seemed well and good after veiled apologies.  Then a week later comes French Budget Minister Valérie Pécresse, who claimed that Panama was not cooperating in the fight against tax evasion.  Well Panama does not have the power that France has but that comment  just cost a French contractor a $297 million loan for a contract on the new Metro system in Panama City.  Gotta love the French.

This in from CentralAmericaData.com.  The complaint from Pécresse came a week after Nicolas Sarkozy made a commitment with President Ricardo Martinelli to remove Panama from the list of tax havens after concluding the negotiation of the double taxation agreement between the two countries.

According to an article in Prensa.com, “Given this ambivalence, De Lima responded by sending instructions to cancel a loan of $297 million awarded to the company Compagnie Francaise Pour Le Commerce Extérieur DAssurance (Coface) to finance part of the Metro construction in Panama. ”

Now comes the “remove foot from mouth” comment:  “The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday reiterated its willingness to take Panama off the list of non cooperative states relating to taxes, after the treaty to avoid double taxation (DTT) between the two countries is ratified by the French Parliament, it announced in a statement. ‘France is very committed to strengthening economic and political relations with Panama, as illustrated by the recent visit of President Ricardo Martinelli.’”