The treatment of small economies in the Free Trade Area of the Americas has become a major concern.
While there is consensus that special or different treatment should be given to size and level development of economies in the treaty, Secretary of the Securities Board and Chairman of the FTAA Services Group, Hillary Deveaux, said there is no definition of small economies or indication as to what special treatment they should get during negotiations.
Mr. Deveaux was a panelist at a FTAA townhall meeting Monday at the Nassau Beach Hotel. He said the heads of CARICOM states have entrusted the negotiations of the FTAA to the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Leslie Miller has indicated that Bahamian negotiators have been instructed to protect the interest of the Bahamian people where it is in their interest to adopt different views from CARICOM.
Since the Feb. 15 deadline for submission of initial market access office is only weeks away, Mr. Deveaux said it appears the FTAA will become a reality.
According to Mr. Deveaux, negotiators for The Bahamas as well as other participating countries have gone through five years of grueling negotiations to create legislative framework.
The Ministers Responsible for Trade in the Hemisphere, representing the 34 countries participating in the negotiations FTAA, held their Seventh Ministerial Meeting in Ecuador, in November.
The aim was to establish guidelines for the next phase of the negotiations, which are to conclude no later than January 2005 in accordance with terms agreed by the Heads of State and Government at the Third Summit of the Americas, in Quebec City in 2001, and to seek its entry no later than December 2005.
Facts on the FTAA agreement can be accessed on the internet at wwwftaa-alca.org.
Mr. Deveaux said those who have seen the documents know that it is full of brackets, meaning that there is no consensus on those areas.
“So we are at the point where there is very little consensus on the legislative framework but we are in the process of submitting initial office,” said Mr. Deveaux. “The negotiations process has been slow but progress is being made.”
He said that negotiators in the FTAA Negotiators Services Group have often discussed how difficult it would be to explain to the private sector the amount of work that goes into the discussions especially when a great deal of time is spent on analysing just one page of the document.
Continuing, he said it is even more difficult for the members of The Bahamas’ negotiations team to appreciate the intricacies and the tediousness of the negotiations because The Bahamas has never been in any trade negotiations prior to the FTAA.
He said what has been missing from the negotiation process has been the lack of any substantial input from the private sector.
“Governments don’t trade, it is usually the private sector that trade but public officials are negotiating on behalf of the private sector,” he said.
The only solution to this he said, would be a continual exchange of information between the Government or negotiators and the private sector. The negotiators will have to get feedback from the private sector on how developments in the FTAA can impact their activities if they are to effectively negotiate on their behalf.
Reiterating the comments of many local economists, Mr. Deveaux said that 90% of the Bahamian economy is comprised of services. He said in order for the country to become competitive in the global economy, provision of proper input must be placed on those services that are efficient.
“If we don’t we will not preserve the kind of lifestyle that we are accustomed to,” he said. “If we don’t protect our interest now by providing the kind of inputs needed, we might in fact be destroying the future livelihoods of our generation.”
By Lisa Albury, The Nassau Guardian
