SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

THE AMBASSADORS

US Ambassador: ‘I’m always impressed by just how engaged and candid Swedes are’

In the last of our current series, we sat down with United States Ambassador Erik Ramanathan to talk about everything from trade ties, military support and taxation to how much he has come to appreciate Swedes’ candour.

US Ambassador Erik Ramanathan
US Ambassador Erik Ramanathan. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/ TT

When US President Joe Biden appointed a new ambassador to Sweden he chose a man who’d already been visiting the country on and off for more than three decades. As a young backpacker, Erik Ramanathan stayed at af Chapman, Stockholm’s floating hostel; now, he’s happily ensconced in Villa Åkerlund, the US Ambassador’s residence, with his husband of 32 years and their teenage daughter.

Unlike many of his counterparts in Stockholm’s diplomatic quarter, Erik Ramanathan is not a career diplomat. Before becoming ambassador in January 2022, he was chairman of the board of a national public health organisation, Heluna Health, while his other previous roles include board chair at Immigration Equality, a legal services group for LGBTQ and HIV positive immigrants.

‘A whirlwind year’

At the height of the Covid pandemic, the health organisation he chaired was busy on multiple fronts including running vaccine clinics, distributing protective equipment, and supporting clinical trial work. Given that he arrived in Stockholm after the worst days of the pandemic were over, the new ambassador might have been forgiven for expecting a quieter life. But then Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Sweden’s long-standing opposition to Nato membership evaporated almost overnight.

“It’s been quite a whirlwind year, but it’s really an exciting time to be here, and there’s really a lot of important work to be done,” Ramanathan tells The Local.

With a Nato application in the works and worried about how Russia might respond, Sweden required security guarantees, and countries including the UK, Germany and, crucially, the United States were quick to step up.

“All the time we’re doing military exercises together in the region. We have interoperable militaries. Sweden’s already an invitee to Nato. So we’re working together in many contexts already within the Nato framework,” says Ramanthan.

He adds that Sweden’s “moral authority” already sees the two countries working frequently together on multinational issues, and when it comes to trade too Sweden punches above its weight in the US.

“There’s over 1,200 American companies here in Sweden and there’s over 1,100 Swedish companies in the US. So there’s a lot of people with different business connections and business interests trying to figure out how to take our relationship to the next level,” says Ramanthan.

“Altogether, the foreign direct investment between Sweden and the US is higher than it’s ever been, over $30 billion, and Sweden is the 13th largest foreign direct investor in the US.”

Listen to more from US ambassador Erik Ramanathan in the Sweden in Focus podcast

The depth of the countries’ relationship is rooted in nearly 400 years of friendship, says Ramanathan, also pointing out that almost four million Americans trace their lineage to Sweden.

‘I have heard concerns expressed about taxation’

As for Americans in Sweden, nearly 25,000 people born in the US called Sweden home in 2022, according to official statistics. And when US citizens get in touch with the embassy it’s generally for things like renewing a passport or registering a childbirth. But when asked about FATCA (​​Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), Ramanathan says that the embassy does also get asked about these kinds of taxation issues too.

FATCA is a law that was intended to target tax evaders, but many Americans see it as an unnecessarily high burden.

“This is not really something that I was familiar with before I took up my post, but I have heard concerns expressed about taxation, generally, and on FATCA in particular,” says Ramanathan, noting that embassies around the world report back these concerns.

But, he adds: “Tax policy ultimately comes from Congress. So our recommendation to folks who are experiencing challenges in this area is to engage with their senators and representatives in Congress to seek changes that would make that an easier system to navigate.”

‘It’s really nice to be able to have honest discussions’

Now well into his second year in Sweden, Erik Ramanathan says he is “enjoying every second of it” and is finding his hosts refreshingly well-informed and straightforward.

“I’m always impressed by just how engaged and candid people are. That’s from the woman on the street to ministers and parliamentarians and others. People are very, very engaged,” he says.

“It’s really nice to be able to have these honest discussions and talk about what people are hearing. I learn so much by doing that, and can really, of course, share about US policy as well.”

As for what the future holds, Sweden might well remain home for many years to come. 

“I serve at the pleasure of the President. So I expect I’ll almost certainly be here as long as his first term in office and there’s a very decent chance I’ll be here beyond that.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

AMERICANS IN EUROPE

Why are fewer American nationals renouncing their US citizenship?

More than 3,000 American citizens formally gave up their US citizenship last year but that number reflected a drop when compared to some recent years, with suggestions that many who are intending to renounce are delaying the move.

Why are fewer American nationals renouncing their US citizenship?

Some 3,260 Americans formally gave up their citizenships last year, according to a list of recently-published names on the US government’s Federal Register website.

The number for 2023 is lower when compared to totals from previous years.

More than 30,000 Americans have given up their US citizenship over the past decade, according to the list of names published quarterly by the US government.

The number of Americans renouncing has been running at between 1,000 right up to 6,000 a year since 2010.

The reason some observers give for 2023’s relatively low annual total number of Americans renouncing citizenship is that many US nationals living in Europe and through the world intending to make the move are waiting for a major reduction in the fee they are charged to give up their passport.

READ ALSO: Why are more and more Americans giving up their US passports?

The State Department vowed in January last year that it would significantly lower the fee it charges for renouncing – from $2,350 to $450 following a legal challenge. However since October there has been no news.

Americans intending to renounce – many for tax reasons – are still waiting.

John Richardson, a Toronto-based lawyer who helps American expatriates to navigate the often complex renunciation process, says a number of his clients have told him that they’re holding off on submitting their applications in order to take advantage of the $1,900 they would save with the reduction in the fee.

“This reduction in the fee was first mentioned by the State Department more than a year ago – in January of 2023 – as part of its official response to a legal challenge over the fee’s unfairness and ‘unconstitutionality’,” Richardson said. “Some of my clients and others are starting to become extremely frustrated that it’s taking so long.”

The legal challenge was made in a US District Court in Washington, DC, in 2020, by the Paris-based Association des Américains Accidentels (Association of Accidental Americans), in partnership with some 13 “accidental American” co-plaintiffs from around the world.

Failure to cut fee is ‘deplorable”

London-based US national Liz Zitzow, who helps other Americans with their US taxes and renunciations agreed that “lots of people are waiting for the fee to drop.”

She also believes US consulates that carry out the renunciation process are still in “post-Covid mode” – and thus simply aren’t processing as many applications.

“I find the length of time it’s taking them to enact the reduction in the fee, given that they announced it more than a year ago, deplorable,” Zitzow said.

“Many of the people who are looking to give up their US citizenships are doing so because it’s so costly to remain a citizen, while living abroad…so obviously, the difference between $2,350 and $450 is going to matter a lot to them.” 

State Department ‘working on the final rule’

Asked about the proposed reduction in the renunciation fee, and when it might be expected to come into force, a State Department spokesperson made reference to last October’s public consultation on the matter, which ended on November 1st.

“The Department is in the process of considering and developing responses to comments. That review process is ongoing, and the Department is actively working on the final rule,” the spokesperson said.

Fee only introduced in 2010 with FATCA

Renouncing American citizenship used to be free, and not much talked about, until 2010 – the year when the new regulation known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was signed into law.  That year the fee for renouncing was set at $450. In 2014, this was hiked by 422 percent, to $2,350.

The numbers of those giving up their US citizenship only became a topic of interest after the numbers of those renouncing began to increase after 2010 due to FATCA – which came into force in 2014.

FATCA basically mandates stiff penalties for “foreign financial institutions” (FFIs) that fail to report to the US authorities the bank account details, including assets, of any of their clients who happen to be US citizens or Green Card holders.

But its unintended (and massive) side effect was to cause many non-US financial institutions around the world to suddenly refuse to accept American clients at all – even if they were living in the country in which these institutions were (and are) located, and had held accounts with these institutions for decades.

So even though the number of renunciations in 2023 was comparatively low compared to recent years, it is still many more than in the years before FATCA came into law, the data from the Federal Register’s quarterly list of names reveals.

While many experts question the accuracy of the data obtained from these lists, in the absence of other sources of these numbers, interest in them remains – with the result that those interested in tracking the numbers of Americans giving up their citizenships watch the Federal Register closely four times a year, in order to examine its latest “Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate”.  

SHOW COMMENTS