The Bahamian Minister of Trade, Leslie Miller, has indicated that it may be to the Bahamas advantage to opt out of joining the FTAA (Free Trade Association of the Americas) and instead negotiate a bi-lateral free trade agreement directly with the United States, according to a recent report in the Nassau Guardian.
“There just may be a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between The Bahamas and the United States. These things are happening now. One was just signed two weeks ago in Miami with Chile and there is one going on now with Venezuela and Brazil,” said Miller, acknowledging the US’ apparent policy of negotiating trade agreements with Latin America on an individual country basis.
“Trinidad and Jamaica is examining an FTA with the United States, so even though we are a block, each country is looking out for their separate countries and The Bahamas is no different,” the Trade Minister added.
Mr Miller noted how the Bahamas was somewhat “different” to its Caribbean counterparts, not least because of its proximity to the United States, and the minister told how he raised these concerns with the American representatives of the FTAA during the 24th CARICOM heads of state meeting in Jamaica last week. In response, Miller said the US government has invited a Bahamian delegation to Washington to discuss their concerns with chief US trade negotiator Robert Zoellick.
Mr Miller also referred to a previous conversation with Zoellick at the CARICOM conference where the American representative acknowledged that the FTAA agreement needed to be substantially “downsized” in the order of forty to fifty per cent. “However, the key element is that once we downsize FTAA, it means that many of the items, as much as 50 percent of them that trouble most of the areas in the Caribbean, would be dealt with at another forum. These items would not be dumped on countries like The Bahamas and we won’t be forced to do things that we are not ready to do at this time,” commented Miller.
By Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com
