Don’t expect “strong” opposition from the Jamaican diaspora in the United States to legislation proposed to tax remittances sent to countries like Jamaica, Irwine Clare, a key New York member, said.

The tax would be used to fund the wall President Donald Trump campaigned on and insists will be built at the US border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration.

Republican congressman from Alabama, Mike Rogers, introduced the ‘Border Wall Funding Bill’ on March 30. It is to amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act by requiring a charge of two per cent on the US-dollar value of any money being sent to Jamaica and 43 other countries covering Latin America and the Caribbean.

Many of those countries, including Jamaica, have poor populations that depend heavily on remittances. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith is “on top of this”, state minister in the finance ministry, Fayval Williams, said, adding that she will allow the minister to speak on Jamaica’s response.

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