KHAALIS ROLLE

Published On:Monday, November 30, 2009

By NEIL HARTNELL

Business Editor

THE Chamber of Commerce's president has called for "a clear plan for implementing" the Bahamas' obligations under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to be published, and urged the private sector and government to be "actively involved" in trade agreement talks with Canada from the get-go.

Khaalis Rolle, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, said the Bahamas could not afford to be "last minute" and "lax" in its approach to future trade agreement negotiations, as it had appeared to be over the EPA talks with the European Union.

Speaking after it was confirmed that the EU had accepted the Bahamas' revised services offer, Mr Rolle said of the EPA: "This is a process that we have committed to, and I'm happy to see we're making progress and moving to the next phase.

"What I want to see now is a clear plan for the implementation, or to prepare for the implementation, of the agreement. How are we going to prepare to implement this agreement?"

Mr Rolle said having a timetable for the Bahamas' implementation of its numerous EPA obligations was vital if the Chamber was to "educate our members on some of the benefits and how to prepare businesses to be more competitive".

The Chamber, he added, had already held several seminars - and was continuing to hold them - as it sought to provide Bahamian small and medium-sized businesses with the necessary technical support and funding that would improve their export capacity, positioning them to take advantage of the EPA's benefits.

Mr Rolle also called on the Government and private sector to take a more proactive approach to future trade negotiations, the perception having been that the Bahamas' involvement in the EPA discussions and, indeed, decision to sign on, had been very much last minute with minimal preparation.

Apart from the talks with Canada on a WTO-compliant replacement for the current CARIBCAN trade agreement, the Bahamas has already begun the accession process for full membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and will eventually have to partake in a replacement for the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) with its largest trading partner, the US.

"Sometimes we can be very lax in our approach to it, and sometimes last minute in our preparation to put in these agreements," Mr Rolle said. "This is evident in the fact we were not among the first to participate" in the EPA talks with the EU.

Looking at the negotiations with Canada, Mr Rolle added: "My concern is that we do not fall victim to the same hardships we faced early on. I'd like to see us actively involved in this from the outset, looking at some of the adjustments we have to make and seeing how we can benefit from them."

Ratifying

Apart from actually ratifying the EPA via an Act of Parliament, the Bahamas will have to introduce numerous laws, amended laws and regulatory bodies to comply with its obligations under the agreement. For example, this nation will have to pass a competition law, and create a regulator to deal with antitrust issues, by 2013.

The Government's proposed National Investment Act is an attempt to codify in statute what has largely, to date, been policy, again with one eye towards EPA implementation. Other issues that the Bahamas will also have to attend to, apart from eventually reforming its tax structure with tariffs removed on 86.9 per cent of EU goods entering this country by 2033, are areas such as rules of origin, anti-dumping and phytosanitary regulations.

In short, there is much for the Government and the private sector to do. Zhivargo Laing, minister of state for finance, expressed confidence that this nation would implement all its EPA obligations on time.

"Our implementation plan has been in place from the time we initially signed," he told Tribune Business recently, "and that included structures of various inter-governmental groups to address specific aspects of the agreement and its implementation.

"We've been working robustly in terms of putting in place an implementation plan for the EPA."

Mr Laing said the Government would bring to Parliament "in due course" legislation to ratify the EPA and its obligations, adding: "There are other pieces of legislation being done for corporate law, intellectual property rights and other areas.

"We're working to ensure we put in place the legal and administrative structure to carry through, and follow through, on the EPA." Tariff liberalization, along with other EPA obligations, would take place over a 20-25 year period, Mr Laing said, while there was a "three-year window" following the EPA's signing in 2008 that allowed preparations for its implementation to be made.

As for CARIBCAN, Mr Laing said the Government had "participated in the initial discussions". He added that talks between CARICOM and Canada were at "a preliminary stage", and said he was "quite confident the negotiations will take a similar line to the EPA".

The Government, added Mr Laing, would do "what is necessary to protect Bahamian interests" when it entered into a new trade agreement with Canada.