The large majority of the DKK 1,000 billion that the Danish tax authority claims has gone to and from accounts in tax havens is perfectly normal trade between major trading partners, according to Jyllands-Posten.

The newspaper writes that countries such as Britain, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Latvia, Lithuania and Hong Kong are among those countries that SKAT has demanded and received 2004-2009 transaction data from the 20 largest Danish banks.

“There is nothing in the figure that surprises me when you take into account that a country such as Britain is on the list. Britain is a major export market for Denmark, so Danish pork exports are within the figure. There can also be large amounts in bond trading with Britain,” Banking Association Director Jørgen Horwitz tells Jyllands-Posten.

SKAT has declined to disclose which countries are on its tax haven list in order not to tread on any toes, but Jyllands-Posten has a copy of the list and has worked out overall trade with the tax havens on the list. According to Jyllands-Posten’s figures, Denmark has traded with the countries for more than DKK 600 billion in the past five years. Great Britain accounts for more than half of that figure.