The Bahamas apparently pulled a fast one during the initial signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.
Branford Isaacs, leading trade specialist with the EPA Implementation Unit of CARICOM just discovered the “oversight” in December, 2010. As we Bahamians would say, “He mussy been sleep at the wheel.” Did he even know who he was dealing with?
The Bahamas is notorious for lying, cheating and stealing their way through international agreements.
It was only the end of last year when nine Bahamian straw vendors were arrested in New York City after being busted for violating international copyright laws. Despite numeorus assurances from the Bahamas government that they would act to stop such infringements, fake designer goods were available throughout the Islands of The Bahamas.
The crooked straw vendors were trying to export thousands of dollars worth of fake deisgner merchandise to sell in there rat-infested flea market in Nassau. The government paid over $100,000 of the taxpayer’s dollars to spring the bum vendors from jail.
In another egregious example of the abuse of international treaties, The Bahamas just celebrated International Women’s Day with much fanfare, despite being the only country in the world that signed an agreement to end discrimination against women, and yet ignores the tenants of the agreement. The Bahamas Constitution is fundementally flawed. It gives rights to male citizens while denying those same rights to female citizens.
The Bahamas became a signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in October 1993, committing itself to a “Bill of Rights” for women as enshrined in that Convention.
Each year, the Bahamian politicians trip over each other to get their names in the press while pledging “a firm commitment to the advancement of women”. Yet, the glaring discrimination in the Constitution continues unabated.
The Bahamas also signed the Inter-American Convention against Corruption way back in June, 1998. Article 8 of the Convention states, “In order to fight corruption, each state party shall promote, inter alia, integrity, honesty, and responsibility among its public officials, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its legal system.”
Good God! The Bahamas has one of the most corrupt and dysfunctional legal systems in the world. Literally every case is filled with glaring examples of incompetence and corruption in almost every stage of the legal process.
In 1997, The Bahamas was heavily criticized for allowing the brutal treatment of a Loggerhead turtle in front of horrified tourists on Arawak Cay. The government only responded to the outrageous act after environmentalists from around the world demanded that the pirate-filled government live up to the CITES agreement. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
A petiton was circulated internationally saying, in part, that “The Bahamas was a party to CITES, yet ignores the CITES classification of sea turtles, and allows the harvesting of any of these animals.”
This is a common tactic of The Bahamas. They send delegates to important international meetings to act like they are from a responsible nation. The Bahamians sign all the right papers, issue all the politically correct press releases and then forget the whole deal on the plane ride back to The Bahamas.
It’s unknown at this point how the tax collection declaration in the EPA agreement was overlooked in the initial negotiations pertaining to The Bahamas and the trade pact.
Maybe one of the Bahamian representatives bribed someone on the EPA Implementation Unit. Wouldn’t surprise anyone.
