The Bahamas needs membership in regional arrangements such as the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) to strengthen its negotiating power in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process, internationalist Sir Shridath Ramphal suggested on Monday.
Sir Shridath, former Chief of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) on FTAA and former Commonwealth Secretary General, was one of the speakers at the International Labour Conference (ILC) at the Wyndham Nassau Resort.
He said that there are “special and differential” arrangements under the FTAA that might not be extended to The Bahamas if it is not a part of the CSME.
“With The Bahamas not a member of the CSME, these “special and differential” arrangements may not have a similar outreach,” Sir Shridath said.
He added that there are a number of imponderables arising from the FTAA, which are “merely made more incalculable by The Bahamas not being within the CSME.”
“What is obvious is that there is an urgent need to develop a strategic view on the position of The Bahamas in the context of these multiple trade arrangements, ” Sir Shridath said.
He also said that because The Bahamas did not join the World Trade Organization (WTO)- although membership is pending- the process is now much more complicated “and appears to have been stalled in the intervening period.”
The Bahamas is the only CARICOM country not to have taken advantage of opportunities to join the WTO nearly a decade ago.
Sir Shridath said as long as the WTO remains the international organization regulating world trade and administering the regime of rules and disciplines that govern it, “The Bahamas will most certainly find it desirable to be inside the tent.”
“That means serious efforts now to negotiate membership,” Sir Shridath said. “For that, substantial technical assistance will be required…”
Sir Shridath said that the challenges of globalization are demanding all the strength that the Caribbean can muster.
“Alone, we are alone; together, we are not,” he said.
Although he does advocate regionalism, Sir Shridath did caution that protecting the interest of The Bahamas must be the primary duty of Bahamians.
“Pursuing that interest requires active sustained engagement with the issues and the process of constant policy evaluation of where that national interest lies,” he said. “To go with the flow is to risk being shipwrecked.”
Sir Shridath also urged other Bahamian entities apart from government to play a major part in the trade liberalization process.
“So too must the private sector whose interests are bound up with the outcome of these negotiations and with both the opportunities and challenges they provide, ” Sir Shridath said. “In other words, all Bahamians are affected; all must be involved.”
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
