Bahamas: 'Bilateral' WTO member talks to start 'early in New Year'

The Bahamas is expected to start bilateral discussions on its bid to accede to full World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership early in the New Year, with the US first up, as it bids to have its initial goods (market access) offer ready for June 2011's working party meeting.

Raymond Winder, the Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner and this nation's lead WTO negotiator, outlining the upcoming talks timetable, yesterday urged the Bahamian private sector to supply himself and the Government with as much data on their needs and companies as possible, telling Tribune Business his success "hinges" on their responsiveness.

Pointing out that the Bahamas had held preliminary discussions with key trading partners when it submitted its Memorandum of Trade Regime to the Geneva-based WTO last year, formally kicking-off the process for full membership accession, Mr Winder said: "Early in the New Year, we're really going to start the bilateral discussions, the first being the US."

He added that talks with the US were likely to take place "some time before the end of February", with both himself and the Government in the meantime setting themselves the goal of collecting - and analysing - as much data from the Bahamian private sector as possible.

This is with a view to the Bahamas being ready to submit its initial goods/market access offer by June 2011, when it returns to Geneva for a meeting with the Working Party handling its membership application.

Confirming that this nation had to complete its goods offer by then, Mr Winder told Tribune Business: "In June, we're anticipating going for the next Working Party meeting in Geneva, so we should have the goods offer before then.

"This all hinges on making sure we get sufficient details and data from the private sector."

Negotiate

The Bahamas will have to negotiate its WTO membership through the specially-formed Working Party, chaired by Jamaica's Dr Peter Black, which will be comprised of representatives from its main trading partners - the US, Canada and the European Union (EU) etc - and all other nations that have an interest in trading with it.

Asked about the likely impact once the Bahamas becomes a full WTO member, Mr Winder told this newspaper: "I do not think the business landscape will change significantly. Where we will have changes, they will result in only minimal loss of jobs and minimal loss of enterprises."

Pledging that he, the Government and other negotiators would do everything possible to ensure the Bahamas emerged from the WTO accession process in the 'net benefit' column, as opposed to the 'net loss' column, Mr Winder said that by being outside the global rules-based trading system all Bahamian industries were "currently exposed" to having trade barriers imposed on their export products without any recourse.

"It's a net benefit to have that insurance protection," Mr Winder said of WTO membership, with its dispute resolution mechanisms. "Being involved with the WTO is a net benefit to the existing business environment.

"The second level of protection is that because we have not invested in the infrastructure related to doing business in the Bahamas, being in the WTO arena will cause us to have a competitive edge relative to other countries."

Here, Mr Winder means that by upgrading the laws, policies, regulations and other infrastructure as a result of meeting WTO standards, the Bahamas will position itself on a more competitive footing. "In terms of loss of production, I can assure you that we will not enter the WTO if, at the end of the day, there will be a huge net loss of employment," Mr Winder said, adding that the Government would not alter its taxation structure until an alternative mechanism - one which ensured no revenue losses - was in place.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

By Neil Hartnell

Source: Tribune Business Editor