The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Establishing a Standards Bureau will be a “catalyst” to future business and trade between the Bahamas and Haiti, a senior Chamber of Commerce executive believes, as the organisation gears up to lead a trade mission to that nation.

Edison Sumner, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chief executive, told Tribune Business that following the July visit by Haitian president Michel Martelly, it was gearing up to lead 10-15 Bahamian businesses in exploring investment opportunities there.

Agreements on trade and migration were signed between The Bahamas and Haiti during the visit, with the Haitian president urging Bahamian businesses to invest in his country.

Mr Sumner said: “Since the visit by the Haitian president we have been working with the Haitian ambassador and the consultants, and also had some exchanges with the Bahamian ambassador in Haiti on organising the trade mission scheduled to take place between October 15-18.

“So far we have just under 10 businesses who have expressed interest in going on that mission. We are trying to get at least 10-15, so we have almost reached our initial target of persons who are interested. We have had a number of people who have expressed an interest in doing business in Haiti, or at least exploring the opportunities to get business done there in any number of industries.

“What we are doing is organising a trade mission to get people to Haiti to have a chance to visit some of the various areas of interest, and also arranging counterparty meetings with Haitian counterparts on areas we can explore doing business together.”

Mr Sumner added: “ When we talk about doing business together we talk about reciprocal arrangements, not just a one-sided thing where we are feeding business into Haiti. One of the core things that we know that we have to establish quickly is a Standards Bureau, so that we can have proper and clearly defined standards for the import of goods coming out of Haiti into the Bahamas.

“Once we can establish that, then that in itself will be a major improvement, we think, and the catalyst to get business done. We have done this before [trade missions to Haiti] at least twice. Some of the results were not as desired in previous visits, and we have expressed what those concerns were with the president of Haiti, the ambassador who was here, and we are hoping that when we go to Haiti on this trade mission we come back with much better results in terms of the ease of doing business, transparency in business and opportunities to get business done both in Haiti as well as in The Bahamas.

“Some persons wanted to see just generally what was available out there, what their options were. Others were having an interest in building materials, agricultural endeavours, looking at textiles, because Haiti is developing quickly a garment manufacturing industry.”

The Government has already begun to form a Standards Bureau, which it must do as part of its international trade obligations, and has held several forums on the issue.