The Leon Guerrero administration has announced its intention to seek the removal of Guam from the European Commission's tax haven blacklist.

"It is really unclear as to why Guam and the other U.S. territories are included in this list," Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said in a statement on Thursday.

Being placed on the list means that European banks will have to carry out increased due-diligence checks on any transactions involving customers or other financial institutions in the listed countries and territories.

Guam has been on the EU blacklist since December 2017, when the EU first decided to target jurisdictions that, the EU alleged, were unfairly offering tax avoidance schemes and "failing to meet agreed tax good governance standards."

The EU claimed Guam and the other jurisdictions "refused to cooperate and change their way after almost one year of consultations."

However, then-Department of Revenue and Taxation Director John Camacho and the Calvo administration both said no one from the EU had ever contacted them.

No. 8 on the blacklist

On Feb. 13, the EU updated its blacklist, expanding the number to 23 jurisdictions it claims have "strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing frameworks."

In 2017 Guam was No. 5 on the blacklist, after Grenada and before South Korea. On the updated list Guam has slipped to No. 8, after Ghana and before Iran.

"We believe this new list is unfair and unreasonable," said Leon Guerrero. "Our Guam Department of Revenue and Taxation is communicating with the U.S. Treasury and the IRS regarding this matter."

The U.S. Department of the Treasury also released a statement Thursday rejecting the inclusion of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on the list.

The Treasury Department statement highlights the "rigorous work" conducted by the Financial Action Task Force "in implementing the FATF standards extend to all U.S. territories."

"Moreover, the Treasury Department was not provided any meaningful opportunity to discuss with the European Commission its basis for including the listed U.S. territories," the Treasury release stated.