A senior Antigua government minister says CARICOM countries will along with countries in Latin America speak with one voice opposing plans by the United States to target their nationals residing in the North American country to help President Donald Trump build his much touted multi-billion dollar US-Mexico border wall.

US legislators are seeking to impose a two per cent tax on all remittances sent by nationals of Belize, the Cayman Islands, Haiti, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana and Suriname to friends and relatives.

These Caribbean countries are among a number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean highlighted by the US legislators to help fund the wall, a major campaign promise of Trump and estimated at US$21.6 billion.

Foreign Affairs Minister Charles Fernandez, speaking on the state-owned ABS Television, said the new measures being advocated could result in the remittances system going underground.

Fernandez said that while the Gaston Browne administration has not yet officially discussed the new US measure, it is aware of the situation.

The Border Wall Funding Act Introduced to the House of Representatives on March 30, seeks to amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to impose a fee for remittance transfers to certain foreign countries, and for other purposes.

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