The French government has stepped up its fight against tax evasion by placing Jersey, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda on an official blacklist of uncooperative tax havens, according to an entry in France's gazette for official decisions dated 21 August.

The move comes following increased efforts by Jersey to improve transparency and international cooperation with other countries on tax matters. Companies operating out of countries on the blacklist have to pay higher taxes in France.

The entry did not give a reason for the move.

The French government also removed the Philippines from the blacklist. The total number of countries on the list now stands at 10, including Botswana, Brunei, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Guatamala and the Marshall Islands.

Geoff Cook, chief of Jersey Finance, said he was surprised and disappointed by the decision of the French government.

“The French administration’s decision is surprising and doesn’t appear to take into account at all the significant action Jersey has taken this year in support of international moves on transparency and international cooperation," said Cook.

“Our understanding is that this is a bilateral issue relating to some outstanding tax information requests made by the French authorities, through the agreement Jersey signed with France in 2009," added Cook.

He said that Jersey’s government was strongly engaged with France and was confident it could resolve this issue.

Jersey has now completed, agreed or initialled over 50 tax information exchange agreements.

Earlier this year, Jersey moved to the automatic exchange of information under the EU Savings Tax Directive, signing up to the G20 Action Plan and agreed to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on Tax Matters. The island also committed to sign up to the UK equivalent of the  US FATCA and joined the EU G5 project on automatic exchange of information.