Mr. Zhivargo Laing MP, Minister of State for Finance spoke at the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting at the British Colonial Hilton yesterday on The Bahamas Trade Regime.

Besides the usual political stuff like “The Bahamas is the greatest nation on earth” and “the Bahamian people have as much potential than any nation he has visited”, he opened his remarks by indicating that government plans for trade policy have to tend toward helping citizens and lawful residents realise their dreams and potential.

He then gave a very concise history of the WTO and other trade agreements that he and his staff and advisors are dealing with like the Caribbean Basin Initiative with the US, CaribCan with Canada, and the Lome Convention and the Contoneau Agreement with Europe that is now known as the EPA.

Mr. Laing reiterated that The Bahamas has agreed the portion of the goods only EPA treaty with the EU with the services offer to be made by June 2008 with all liberalisation to take place in 25 years. The majority between 10 to 25 years.

Unless I misunderstood something, he indicated that the services offer is being reviewed by the government to send to the EU for their consideration.

He indicated that The Bahamas cannot continue with this haphazard approach to trade and we need to:

1. Establish and staff an international trade unit and contract with the College of The Bahamas to conduct related research.

2. The Trade Commission must be enhanced and include representation from every sector of the economy as they just cannot continue to meet with every group on an individual basis. It’s just not practical he claims. They will also be charged with informing and consulting the community, and

3. The application to join the WTO that was initiated in 2001 has been reactivated and pursued.

He closed his remarks by indicating that the world is changing around The Bahamas and we have not changed, but we will contend with these changes “in our own time”, whatever that means.

The floor was opened for questions and your not so humble blogger reminded the Minister how the bills of 2000 were shrouded in secrecy and wondered if the same thing was happening here and asked when the Services Offer would be released to the public.

To my pleasant surprise he indicated that the services offer should be made public by the end of the month and volunteered that it was very similar to our current National Economic Policy.

While this sounds reasonable on the surface, we need to know the specifics of what is being liberalised and when.

In addition, this all proves my point that all this is simply not free trade.

Mr. Laing pointed out himself however that trade is one person buying from another – not a very complicated exercise.

Regretfully trade is compromised and slowed down with governments involvement and all this will mean at the end of the day is more red tape.

And not to disagree with the Minister intentionally, but from what I have read on this subject it is most doubtful that our present National Economic Policy will be acceptable to the EU.

Time will tell however.

My recommendation? Just unilaterally drop all of the perceived barriers to trade and avoid all these new government units and expense.