Steinbrück puts Swiss on par with Burkina Faso
Switzerland's battle with German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück over tax laws took a new twist on Tuesday after he compared the Swiss to Burkina Faso.
At a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels, Steinbrück rejected complaints from Switzerland that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s decision to place the country on a “grey list” of tax havens took place at a meeting the Swiss did not attend.
“They could have come,” Steinbrück said. “And of course I’ll also invite Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria and Ouagadougou to the follow-up conference in June in Berlin,” he added ironically, provoking laughs from the room.
Ouagadougou, the capital of the struggling west African nation, learned in 2008 that the World Bank had named the country the least favourable on the continent for investors.
Steinbrück angered the Swiss earlier this year after he compared outside pressure to force Switzerland into reforming its banking secrecy laws to Native Americans living in fear of the United States cavalry.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.