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Remarks
by The Hon. Fred Mitchell Minister of Foreign Affairs Including Foreign
Trade Caribbean Chamber Of Commerce
21ST
APRIL 2006
I would like to thank you for asking me to come to speak to you. On
behalf of the Government of The Bahamas I would like to welcome you all
here to
Nassau.
I want also to
thank Tanya Wright, the President of The Bahamas Chamber and Philip
Simon, the Executive Director of the Chamber for their leadership. I
wish also to mention the work of Doswell Coakley, who leads the Chamber
in Grand Bahama. We also have an active Chamber in Abaco.
I am pleased that
the Chamber is involved in public education on globalization. This
country’s trade issues are increasingly affected by the changes around
the world. However, there is a considerable body of influence in The
Bahamas that believes that we can retreat from interaction with the
larger world economy. No doubt there is a similar sentiment in other
parts of the region as well. What we know is that we can try to retreat
behind safe walls but the resultant inefficiencies mainly in the form of
higher prices eventually lead to change being forced upon us in ways
that we cannot control.
There is no better
example of this than the telecommunications sector. The rapid
developments in this sector are fast making land line based monopolies
obsolete and in some senses irrelevant.
The Bahamas is not
now a party to any major trade pacts. We are not a part of the
Caribbean Single Market, although by special agreement we are a part of
Caricom. We are observers in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and we
do not propose to go any further with membership for the time being.
There is not a sufficient consensus on the way forward. We are involved
in the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) talks. However, as
you know those talks are moribund in the face of the disagreements
between the United States and Brazil on support for agriculture.
For the moment
then our foreign trade polices are decided on an ad hoc basis. This
means that as specific issues arise, our general protectionist positions
are waived to meet the specific circumstances. The exceptions for
example to the general rule on local ownership of the distributive
trades often come when the issue of losing jobs makes the argument for
an exception compelling. Another example of an exception to the policy
might be when the lack of a foreign capital injection into a specific
business usually reserved for Bahamians will imperil the future of a
business.
Increasingly
though, the decisions that require exceptions will arise as Bahamians
become more aggressive in their pursuit of international capital in the
face of the perception that local sources of capital are denied to the
start up entrepreneurs. Fortunately for us, we are now in a positive
liquidity situation that has lessened these complaints. Further, the
Central Bank of The Bahamas has liberalized the ability of Bahamians to
make capital investments abroad and more particularly on the Caricom
stock exchanges.
If you read our
local newspapers today you will note the reports about our national
budget and the national debt. Today’s reports project that there will
continue to be budget deficits until at least the year 2009. However,
these deficits will continue to be below the 3 per cent of GDP threshold
and the national debt service continues to be below the 40 per cent
level of the total budget. So on the question of credit rating the
country is in good shape.
What our Minister
of Finance would like to do is reduce these levels even further. This
is where I think foreign trade comes in.
We see our job as
facilitating Bahamians in their opportunities for trade. The Ministry’s
mission is to facilitate the passage of Bahamians and Bahamian
businesses throughout the world.
The Bahamas has
benefited from globalization, mainly by the net inflows of investment
capital. But we know that it cannot be a one sided equation. If we
expect investment and trade in our goods and services then we also have
to expect that adjustments are required in policies to accommodate
modern trends and thinking.
This is where the
Chamber comes in. They are engaged in public education. I think that
is most important. The Chamber here has been engaged in a private
public partnership in many areas of national life. Most recently the
Chamber’s President and its executive director joined a tour to India
where they signed a groundbreaking agreement with the Indian Chamber of
Commerce.
I think as we move
forward into the future, there will be other opportunities. In the
future, I would like to have delegations include representatives from
the business community and from the trade unions join us officially as
we negotiate various agreements and trade pacts.
Your holding this
meeting in Nassau is part of that public education, exposing our nation
and its businessmen to the trends from around the world and in the
region. I think that as the public education continues, the fears which
so recently crippled our public policy will lessen. Time is great
healer.
Once again, I want
to thank you all for coming and I wish you a successful conference.
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