The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

THE Bahamas has "considerable work" to do in making its business/trading regime compliant with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, with this nation's negotiating team having undergone a recent grilling in Geneva on various aspects of its existing rules.

A statement issued by the WTO Working Party negotiating the terms of the Bahamas' accession to full membership in the body that sets the rules for global trade acknowledged that while this nation had made good progress, much more needed to be done before the process was completed.

The Working Party's chairman, Jamaican Ambassador to Geneva and the WTO, Wayne McCook, said the Bahamas "had considerable work ahead, as adherence to WTO rules required domestic reforms as well as putting in place the necessary enforcement infrastructure".

The statement, issued following the latest round of discussions between the Bahamas' negotiating team and members of the Working Party in Geneva last week, added: "WTO members praised the Bahamas for the considerable progress it has made in undertaking reforms to its trade regime, and in bringing it in line with WTO rules.

"During the discussion, members raised specific questions and requested further clarification on a number of areas: trading rights, import licensing, export/import regulations, subsidies, agricultural policy, intellectual property rights, anti-dumping and countervailing measures, telecommunications services, quantitative import restrictions, technical barriers to trade and sanitary/phytosanitary measures."

Tribune Business sources close to the accession process yesterday said the Bahamas earned a "positive reception" from Mr McCook, and the Working Party was especially impressed that this nation's delegation was led at ministerial level by Ryan Pinder, the minister of financial services who has responsibility for trade.

This appears to have been interpreted as a sign that the Bahamas is serious about the WTO accession, and integrating its economy more fully with the global economy and rules-based trading regimes.

The WTO Working Party statement said Mr Pinder's presence showed "the Bahamas' desire to integrate more fully into the multilateral trading system through its accession to the WTO".

Tribune Business also understands that Mr McCook was "pretty optimistic" that the Bahamas would "get the full support of the CARICOM" countries in the WTO accession process, and that they "would not challenge us to heavily" on our trading regime given that this nation was already bound, to a large extent, by the commitments given to them and Europe under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

In addition, Tribune Business understands discussions were also held with WTO officials about obtaining technical support and capacity building that would allow the Bahamian private sector to play a meaningful role in the accession process. The Bahamas, this newspaper was told, was "pointed in the right direction" as to how to obtain this.

The WTO Working Party statement said Mr Pinder notified them that "WTO accession was an important part of the Government's programme to accelerate trade and economic development, as well as to create more and better jobs for Bahamians.

"He [Mr Pinder] added that the Bahamas has been an open economy for many years, but as a small island nation it was very dependent on tourism and offshore financial services. He [Mr Pinder] noted that the financial services sector was the second-largest contributor to the Bahamas' GDP and provided high-paying jobs and career opportunities for Bahamians.

"He [Mr Pinder] believed that predictable access to world markets for goods and services originating in the Bahamas was one of the necessary preconditions for his government's economic expansion strategy to succeed."

Mr McCook said the WTO Secretariat had been asked to prepare a summary of all the issues raised in the Bahamas Working Party discussions.

The Working Party, apart from the CARICOM states, also includes the US, Canada and the European Union (EU) plus, oddly, the Ukraine.