I wanted again to– as I did a few weeks ago – to provide a general briefing on a number of matters which involve foreign affairs and foreign trade that have arisen as matters of public interest and so you will be able to pursue any details that you want about them insofar as I can offer them.

The first is that you would recall that last year, I indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been working and has been working since we’ve been in office in May 2002 with a view to trying to resolve the issue of access of Bahamians to Europe. There is a treaty which provides for, under the EU arrangements – called the ‘Schengen Treaty’ – which requires of everyone as part of the process of getting into the borders of Europe, where you have one access point and you get one visa, where you’re able to enter, say Spain or France or the Netherlands.

As a result of the closure of the Netherlands Honorary Consulate here in The Bahamas there are no countries that issue Schengen visas to allow access to Europe from The Bahamas. We’ve been trying to resolve this issue either by having an issuing station here or by getting The Bahamas off the visa list for Schengen countries.

I am pleased to announce that on the 21^st December of last year, a decision was made by the European Commission to amend the regulations which will require The Bahamas and a number of other countries in the Caribbean including Barbados, St. Kitts & Nevis and Antigua & Barbuda… we are all now on a list where we will not be required to have visas to enter Europe and this exemption requirement for nationals of these countries including The Bahamas will come into force once a bilateral agreement on exemption of visa requirements between the European Union and The Bahamas has been concluded.

So, we think that that is significant progress, particularly since Switzerland is about to become part of the Schengen system in 2008 and most Bahamians – our records show, because of the banking sector – travel between The Bahamas and Switzerland. It has been an issue of some concern to a number of businessmen and an inconvenience. So, we’re very pleased to announce this fact and we’re now pursuing this idea of a visa abolition agreement between the EU and ourselves in order to effect this abolition of the visa requirement for Bahamians traveling to Europe.

I want to extend my thanks and the thanks of the Government for the hard work that has been done on this issue by the members of the staff here in the International Relations Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also the Ambassadors who are accredited to The Bahamas from Europe, most of whom reside in Jamaica. We received a note from both the Spanish Ambassador and the German Ambassador who have been in the forefront of this and of course the Honorary Consul to The Bahamas from Belgium who has been working very hard on this issue as well. So I hope that the business community thinks of this as a good thing and that it will assist in their work as we move forward.

You would know from some statements that have been made by various persons over the last week as a result of a meeting which was held here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Monday 8^th January dealing with trade matters that the Contonou Agreement is an agreement which presently governs the state of trade relations between The Bahamas and Europe. In order for our goods to access the European countries duty free, we have to be part of this Contonou Agreement which we have been since it was signed as a successor to the original Lome Agreement.

There are three major companies in The Bahamas which benefit from this agreement: the Bacardi company which distills, manufactures, bottles rum here in The Bahamas and accesses Europe from here; Polymers in Freeport, which manufactures polystyrene products and Paradise Fisheries and other fisheries companies that export crawfish to the European Union all of which is duty free.

On 31^st December, 2007 the duty free regime; that aspect of the Contonou Agreement will expire. There was a waiver given because the one way preference system that is now in place is a violation of the World Trade Organisation rules, and there was an exemption given, but that exemption runs out on 31^st December. If there is not a successor agreement that means that those products which now leave The Bahamas and enter Europe without duty will then have duty applied. That will make those goods less competitive going into European markets.

So these three companies in particular and we also invited the Chambers of Commerce of Grand Bahama and of The Bahamas, The Bahamas Chamber being situated here in Nassau, to come to this meeting and help us in the development of this policy. I am pleased to say that we have some kind of consensus on the way forward with this and one of the things that The Bahamas will have to do is to indicate to the other partners in the Caribbean what our trading position is going to be with regard to these matters.

We are part of something which is called Cariforum. Cariforum is the Dominican Republic, plus the countries of Caricom and it is Cariforum which conducts the negotiations with the European Union on this matter.

What will happen is after the general negotiations are concluded by what is known as the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery – which is a body to which we contribute, both in terms of money and we have men and women who support it as well – once those general negotiations are concluded, then each country will be expected to sign an Economic Partnership Agreement, called an "eepah" or EPA; that agreement will outline what the terms of trade will be between the particular country and the European Union.

The major difference between the existing trade regime, which is a one-way preference system, to the new regime which will come in is that it is going to be reciprocal. In other words, the Europeans are saying that "If we open our markets to you on this basis, then you have to open your markets on the same basis".

Now of course, when you’re talking about removing duty on items that are imported into the country from Europe; that has some revenue impact and so the Ministry of Finance of course is studying the question. The initial evidence shows – on balance – and I believe the Minister of State for Finance has indicated this in a statement this morning to the press; that on balance it is better for us to proceed with signing because of the benefits to the economy.

There is a Cabinet Committee that is responsible for superintending The Bahamas’ position in this matter, which is chaired by myself as the Minister responsible for foreign trade; the Minister of State for Finance; the Minister of Agriculture; the Minister of Financial Services & Investment and also part of the Committee’s work is the head of the foreign trade unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Leonard Archer.

Again, it appears that we have some kind of consensus in the community about moving forward with this. We think it would be good, generally for the economy and we’ll keep you abreast of this from time to time as it develops.

There was a statement made this morning in connection with the five Nassau Flight Services baggage handlers, which reported a member of the Opposition saying in effect that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should take up the case of two individuals who had been arrested and detained in the United States in connection with this matter that has caused some considerable public discussion. I am – for these purposes – addressing the point which was made by the individual from the Opposition. Essentially it seemed the implication was that the individuals had been abandoned by The Bahamas Government and I believe the expression was "their cases should be taken up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".

I think those of you who have been reporting this story would know that from the very beginning of this matter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that we had been notified by U.S. authorities that five individuals had been arrested. And we also indicated what the charges were – from the very start – and also indicated that consular services were available to them and that all rights and privileges as any other Bahamian citizens have in situations of this nature would be extended to these individuals… And I would certainly like to repeat that today.

I would also say that it is wrong… the advice I have; it is wrong… this particular spokesman has indicated these persons are being detained without any idea about when they are going to be arraigned and the advice I have here is that the two individuals indicated: John Peters and Rooney Toney were indicted and arraigned on Thursday 21^st December, 2006 and ordered detained, pending trial. They pleaded not guilty at that time on the 21^st December so it is according to my advice incorrect to say that they had not been arraigned and are being detained indefinitely.

I would also like to report that last week as Minister responsible for the Public Service, on Friday of last week 12^th January; I met with the public service unions and staff associations at the Ministry of Public Service. This is a quarterly meeting that I hold with all of the public service unions and staff associations to be able to be kept abreast of what their continuing concerns are in the situation involving their relations with the Government as an employer.

Attending that meeting were the following unions and staff associations: The Bahamas Public Services Union; the Nurses Association and the Nurses Union; Prison Staff Association; the Police Staff Association and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

In addition to getting to know what their concerns are – which largely centred around what in my view are communications issues within the public service and the question of human resources career paths and tracks, which would help and assist in trying to resolve some of the issues of the public service… and also their view that there are certain aspects of the agreement signed between the Government and themselves which need some additional work; I took the opportunity to commend to them the view or the wish of the Government and the legislation which is presently before the Parliament to deal with the bridging of service of public servants.

It has now had the first reading and I expect the debate will begin about 24^th January when the House meets and the idea here is to solve some of the outstanding pension problems that many public servants now have. This includes trying to resolve some longstanding issues for Beach Wardens who had transferred into the Royal Bahamas Police Force, but in the process lost the years of service that they had given at the Ministry of Tourism. So those Bills are presently before the Parliament including an omnibus Bill to allow for the bridging of service of public servants who have had a break in service of less than two years and for certain specified reasons.

I thought it was a good and productive meeting and we’ve indicated that we will get the action points and try to follow up on all the issues which they raised at these meetings. I expect that over the next month or so, I will also have similar meetings in the major islands, including Exuma, Grand Bahama and Abaco and also the southeastern islands just to have discussions with the public servants who work in these islands just as economic changes come about to get a sense of the readiness of the public service and its preparations to deal with and to cope with the economic and other social changes that are coming to these islands. I expect to be able to invite to come along with me on these visits to the other islands, representatives of these public service unions and staff associations.

Those are the matters of my general statement today and we will invite you again as matters of public interest arise.