The one aspect of FTAA that many Bahamians seem to have heard about is the free movement of people. The reaction received by the Bahama Journal to it is unanimous. Many people expressed a desire for government to bear this in mind when negotiating The Bahamas' position in the agreement.
Cleopatra Thurston said that The Bahamas should not be completely opened up to foreigners and that entry should be reserved to those foreigners only to fill jobs that Bahamians are not skilled to do.
"If we are going to allow people to come in then there should be a limit to the numbers, we permit entry to," she emphasized.
Isabel Miller does not agree with the FTAA because she feels that The Bahamas cannot compete fairly with larger developed countries.
ﾠ" I am not in agreement with it. Our country is small and we don't have many natural resources and it seems to me that the large countries would compete against us," she said.
Mrs. Miller suggests that the government hold town meetings to bring the people up to par.
Carlos Scavella, Jr., an employee of Crystal Palace Casino expressed an understanding of the agreement but feels that it is not beneficial to The Bahamas.
"We are indirectly going to lose from it because if we enter into the agreement customs duties and our way of life will have to change," he said.
On the other hand, he said that it would demand that Bahamians better themselves.
"All of us that don't know an extra language it will force us to say learn the French, learn the Spanish, do what we have to do to prepare ourselves because it's coming," he said.
Owen Bethel heads a Securities firm, Montaque Securities International. Mr. Bethel said that he feels that FTAA has some opportunities for The Bahamas, which he would like to think, are good opportunities.
Mr. Bethel pointed out that The Bahamas has always been an open society in terms of the economy and the fact that The Bahamas does not really produce anything means that there is really nothing to protect.
"The Free Trade from a normal business perspective is not going to have as much of an impact on us as one would think," he opined.
He said that he felt the concern has been in terms of human resources and the movement of people.
Mr. Bethel maintained that The Bahamas has always had "an open door" to the world.
"For all intents and purposes whenever there has been the need for work permits, very few governments even in the throes of Bahamianisation have restricted work permits for persons who have asked for it," he said.
Using his own company as an example, Mr. Bethel said that the FTAA should mean good news for his own firm because more markets will be accessible.
"From the perspective of Montaque Securities, more markets will be open to us. In terms of establishing a presence and looking at the client
ﾠﾠbase in these areas that before might not have been easily accessible," he said.
Mr. Bethel also said that the increased market access for The Bahamas could translate into greater investment in The Bahamas.
"I think you could certainly take it to that degree. You're certainly allowing others in the region to be aware of The Bahamas as a potential investment opportunity because there's going to be such a thing as equal treatment," he said.
The effort to unite the economies of the Western Hemisphere into a single free trade agreement began at the Summit of the Americas , which was held in Miami in December 1994. The Heads of State and Government of 34 democracies in the region agreed to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas . The aim was to progressively eliminate trade and investment barriers and complete negotiations by the year 2005.
A number of principles are in place to guide the FTAA negotiations. They include among others that decisions will be taken by consensus; negotiations will be conducted in a transparent manner; the FTAA will be consistent with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and improve on them wherever possible and appropriate and there is also the allowance for FTAA to coexist with bilateral and sub-regional agreement.
The FTAA guiding principles also specify that special attention be given to the needs of smaller economies and that the FTAA will be a single undertaking (that is, "nothing is agreed until all is agreed").
There has been international opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas .
The Global Exchange, a non-governmental agency compiled a list of ten reasons why FTAA should be opposed.
They are as follows.
- The FTAA expands a proven disaster. It is submitted that the FTAA is essentially an expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
- The Agreement is being written without citizen's input.
- The Agreement will undermine Labour Rights and Cause further Job Loss.
- The Agreement will exacerbate Environmental Destruction.
- The Agreement will hurt Family Farmers.
- The Agreement will lead to Privatization of Essential Services.
- The Agreement will jeopardize Consumer and Environmental Protections.
- The Agreement will spread the use of genetically modified organisms (gmo's).
- The Agreement will increase poverty and inequality and there are proven alternatives by citizens'groups,
The Global Exchanges submissions are based on the failure of NAFTA. Experts say, however, that lessons from NAFTA's failure could prove successful for FTAA. Additionally, FTAA embodies the rules of WTO, which so far is working well, according to internationalists.
At the end of it all, it would appear that the involvement of Bahamian citizens on the road to 2005 as suggested by Mrs. Miller and others should perhaps be the approach taken by the government.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
