Bahamians remain unconvinced that the FTAA will lead to the promise of improved well being and economic growth.
Evidence from the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) suggests that the promised jobs and economic growth have yet to materialise.
What is clear from the Nafta experience, however, is the meaning of investor protection. Under that clause, a similar one of which is also to appear in the FTAA agreements, US corporations can now do what Congress has denied them ﾖ the right to sue governments.
Nobel laureate, economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote in the New York Times of January 6, that as a result of Nafta, companies had sued federal and state governments to the tune of $13 billion.
Many of these suits revolve around environmental issues. Where governments sought to protect their citizens rather than go ahead with a proposed investment the investors have sued the government to recover loss of income as a result of the governmentﾴs action.
Despite official pronouncements to the contrary, businesses in The Bahamas remain vulnerable to trade liberalisation and the elimination of trade barriers and hence borders.
Nafta has shown that the free movement of capital and goods invariably favours the strong and powerful. With a manufacturing sector that contributes 3 percent to GDP; a financial services sector that has been unable to keep up with the competition and a tourism sector that is famous for both its attractions and the high costs of those attractions, the question becomes how do businesses ensure that they will be able to survive the opening of the economy to outside capital and competition.
The new landscape being proposed by the FTAA does not promise to be much different from that created by its Nafta cousin.
As president of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, Winston Rolle observed, whatever the outcome, of the negotiations, the stakeholders in the Bahamian economy should see the FTAA negotiations as an opportunity to review the economy and make the necessary changes.
As examples he cited the absence of investment and competition legislation and anti-trust laws.
ﾓWhatever happens these are areas that need review and we should not wait until the last moment when we are less prepared, and faced with a problem to address these changes,ﾔ he said.
The Bahama Journal
