Bahamas Progressing Towards WTO Membership

The Bahamas has received praise from the World Trade Organization (WTO) for progressing rapidly with the significant reforms necessary to become a member of the global trade body.

On June 21, 2012, the Working Party on the Accession of the Bahamas held its second meeting, examining the Bahamas' trade regime, its trade-related reforms and assessing its conformity with WTO rules. In response to recent progress, WTO members praised the Bahamas for the "considerable progress" made in undertaking reforms to its trade regime and bringing it in line with WTO rules.

However, during the discussion, members raised specific questions and requested further clarification on a number of areas, including: 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.

The Bahamas’ Minister of Financial Services, Ryan Pinder, said 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 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 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 expressed his belief 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.

The Chairperson of the Working Party, Ambassador Wayne McCook (Jamaica), said that the Bahamas had considerable work ahead as adherence to WTO rules required domestic reforms as well as putting in place the necessary enforcement infrastructure. He noted that the presence of a high-level delegation to attend the Working Party meeting manifested the Bahamas’ desire to integrate more fully into the multilateral trading system through its accession to the WTO.

June 26, 2012

Source: Tax News