Grand Cayman (18 February 2008) - US Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Saturday (16 February) acknowledged the Cayman Islands' tight financial regulations, saying his concern was that US tax laws made offshore shelters attractive.
Answering questions immediately preceding his keynote speech at the Young Caymanian Leadership Awards ceremony, Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor trailing Arizona Senator John McCain in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, said he had met Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts and Education Minister Alden McLaughlin, and would sit with Governor Stuart Jack.
"We discussed the significant changes in direction in the Cayman Islands; we discussed the laws, and I have a better understanding of how the system works and what the status of the laws are," Huckabee said.
"If the US could ever implement a fair tax law, it would make US companies so much more competitive," he said, pointing out that 22% of the cost of US products was from such levies as payroll, income and other taxes, forcing them to outsource to Asian and European partners.
"If the US had a fair tax, it would not tax productivity. As it is, our tax code penalises productivity."
Saying "our economy is in trouble", Huckabee said he was the only candidate calling for a complete overhaul of US tax code, and while his proposed reforms would not threaten such low-duty onshore jurisdictions as Delaware, he provided no specifics about how he would accomplish reforms.
"US companies must be able to prosper in their own country," he said decrying systemic obstacles "to doing business...so that the Cayman Islands is a very attractive place for multi-national corporations."
Huckabee indicated he would remain in the nomination race despite overwhelming odds, saying US voters deserved a broad discussion of issues only he had addressed.
"I have real convictions about the sanctity of human life. No one else is doing that," he said, swiping at McCain's controversial pro-abortion sentiments, anathema to conservative voters.
In another shot at McCain, whose bill to ease US immigration woes was rejected by the US Congress, Huckabee vowed to "seal the borders within 18 months".
No one else was talking about such issues, he said, and "the American people have the right to have that as part of the discussion.
"We are not better off having a coronation," he said, referring to McCain's lead and growing calls for Huckabee to quit the race.
"Part of the electoral process is that people vote, and if we say the race is over now, then what about the people in Pennsylvania and other states who never get a chance to vote because someone has said we'd rather get this over with now?"