The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation CEO Edison Sumner has defended the Hawksbill Creek Agreement as “a great agreement”.

His comments come weeks after the government branded Freeport’s founding treaty antiquated and colonial and vowed to amend it.

Mr Sumner said the problem was not the agreement itself but how it was being carried out. He urged the government and the private sector to settle their differences over Freeport by meeting face to face rather than through continued disputes.

“I think the Hawksbill Agreement is a great agreement. I think it’s fantastic. It’s just about how it’s being executed is what I think may be the challenge,” he said.

He said other countries had been studying the agreement and the City of Freeport and copying the model. “So we did something great with it,” he said.

The Hawksbill Creek Agreement was signed in 1955 between the colonial government and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. It created Freeport as a free trade zone run by the Port Authority, with tax and duty concessions for businesses in the Port Area, and it runs until 2054.

Last month Prime Minister Philip Davis declared that whether Freeport’s governance changes was “settled” and no longer up for negotiation with the Port Authority. He announced a review of the agreement directed by Attorney General Wayne Munroe, a government-led Grand Bahama Development Council and a proposed Grand Bahama Development Act covering the whole island. The government’s Green Paper on the reforms says the agreement has outlived its utility and created an economic imbalance on Grand Bahama. The Port Authority has insisted that its rights under the agreement can be changed only by agreement.

Asked whether the government should move away from the agreement, Mr Sumner stopped short of calling for it to be abandoned. He noted that the Christie administration extended the agreement’s tax concessions in 2016. He said the agreement should be reviewed to decide whether it remains suitable for Freeport’s future.

“I think that also should be under review, and deciding whether that still holds relevance to the development of Freeport going forward,” he said.

“I think it’s just now a matter of you know, do we continue with it in its current form, or do we now have to make some amendments to make it more relevant to what the government sees as being the future for Freeport in particular.”

Mr Sumner, who chairs the National Productivity Task Force, said Grand Bahama remains one of the country’s greatest opportunities for economic growth.

“I still believe that Grand Bahama holds a significant opportunity for progress economically. I do believe that there has to be a greater level of dialogue between the government and the private sector in finding more amicable ways to resolve whatever may be some of the outstanding issues,” he said.

The dispute between the government and the Port Authority has also played out in arbitration. In March, the government said an arbitral tribunal had issued a partial award confirming that the Port Authority must make annual payments to the government for the rest of the agreement’s life, and rejecting the Port Authority’s claim to exclusive authority over Freeport. The arbitration is ongoing.