The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Some $1.295 million in financing from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is aiming to upgrade five new government units “crucial” to the Bahamas’ success in trade negotiations, including the Standards Bureau, competition authority and Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

Lifting the lid on the dramatic transformation, in government at least, that will be required by the Bahamas accession to full World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership, an IDB report also said a permanent office in Geneva would be “of crucial importance” to this nation.

The report, detailing the proposed $16.5 million Trade Sector Support initiative, said some $1.295 million of this sum was earmarked to enhance the Government’s platform, and institutional mechanisms, for dealing with trade related matters.

Acknowledging “the capacity constraints of trade-related institutions of the Bahamas”, the IDB said the project was focusing on five units - the Economic Unit of Ministry of Finance; the proposed Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Life; the Standards Bureau; the agency responsible for competition authority; and the Intellectual Property Office.

The latter four have yet to be created, and the IDB report said: “The enhancement of these institutions is crucial for the participation of the Bahamas in trade negotiations, and for the implementation of EPA with the European Union and other trade agreements.

“Most of these institutions take part in the broader management reform of the Bahamas, an important part of this programme.”

Among the tasks involved are preparing recommendations on how to administer and manage intellectual property rights in the Bahamas, and building capacity and knowledge on this and SPS issues.

Two national managers, one for the Standards Bureau and the other for the Intellectual Property Office, are to be hired, with regulations and legislation for SPS to also be designed.

Noting that the Government had invested $1.2 million over the last three years on trade-related matters, the IDB report said: “Increased market access obtained by the implementation of the trade agreements will greatly benefit importers and exporters.

“Accession to the WTO will open markets and contribute to prepare the Bahamas to compete in the world market.

“To effectively participate in the WTO accession process the Government of the Bahamas needs not only to enhance its trade related institutional platform (institutional strengthening, training and technical support), but also it must have a permanent representation to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland.”

The IDB report added: “This would be of crucial importance once the bilateral process starts.

“The actual length of the WTO accession process can not be controlled by the project, but given the importance of obtaining WTO membership, the Government will maintain the financial support to the office in Geneva if necessary after the conclusion of this programme.

“The Government is completely committed to this goal and has already been investing around $400,000 per year in the process during the last three years, including the hiring of a Trade Law consultant, attendance to working party meetings, training, and drafting of legislation.”

The IDB document added that the Bahamas faces two parallel negotiating processes in the WTO accession, one being agreeing bilateral goods and services market access offers with around 30 states - the normal number of countries interested in trading with a new member.

“The second one is the multilateral negotiations of the Working Party (WP) ,where the Bahamas will have to negotiate with the full membership the text of the WP report, where the legal reform process, the assessment of compliance and The Bahamas commitments will be reflected,” the IDB added.

As to the current state of affairs in the Bahamas, the IDB warned: “The institutional platform for international trade, which has the exclusive responsibility for trade matters, is underdeveloped and understaffed, relying on other ministries and institutions to carry out its work, making the negotiation and implementation of trade agreements, including the accession to the WTO, extremely challenging.”