By Barry Williams, Guardian Staff Reporter, barry@nasguard.com

The Bahamas needs to assess the full import of its reservations to certain aspects of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, former Minister of Economic Development Zhivargo Laing said during a town meeting on Friday.

The revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which The Bahamas would have to sign in order to join the CSME, contains provisions binding to all member countries unless "reservations" are filed amd okayed.

The Bahamas has announced that it will seek reservations from the clauses dealing with free movement of labour, a common external tariff (CET), single monetary unit, and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). But even if The Bahamas was granted those reservations, Mr Laing cautioned at the well-attended meeting held at Sir Gerald Cash Primary school in Flamingo Gardens, Bahamians should not adopt a false sense of security.

The revised Treaty does not expressly define what a reservation means, he said, and that nothing in the Treaty clearly indicates the terms of those reservations, how they work in relation to the other provisions, and whether or not those other provisions could compromise them.

According to Mr Laing, "What you don't have in this provision is the certainty as to what a reservation is, and whether or not it can be indefinite - and you have need for consent."

Because of this, he said many Bahamians remain uncomfortable with the reservations.

He drew attention to

Article 237 of the Treaty entitled "Reservations", which notes that "Reservations may be entered into this Treaty with the consent of the signatory States."

But, "There is no definition of a reservation in the Treaty. So, what is a reservation?" he asked.

"Since the Treaty doesn't define it, you have three options," Mr Laing said. "You either go to the ordinary meaning of the word in your Oxford or Webster dictionary," which defines it as "keeping back something."

He said the second option of ascertaining exactly what a reservation meant was, "You go to the mindset of the framers of the Treaty - What did they mean when they said reservations?"

The third option, he said, would be to obtain a legal clarification of it. "You would have to have some judicial review of it to give you an interpretation of reservations," which he said would entail going to the CCJ which has jurisdiction over interpreting the Treaty.

Mr Laing also questioned whether or not The Bahamas would be able to "opt out" of the CSME if it so desired. He quoted Article 27 (4), which states that, "Subject to the agreement of the Conference, a Member State may opt out of obligations arising from the decisions of competent Organs provided that the fundamental objectives of the Community, as laid down in the Treaty, are not prejudiced."

This particular article, Mr Laing continued, made it unclear as to whether or not the reservations The Bahamas is seeking would actually prejudice the fundamentals of the Treaty. "There is not sufficient clarity. There is not sufficient certainty on these matters to give you comfort that in signing, these things will not be a problem to you in the future."

Article 27 (4), he said, was also dubbed "The Ingraham Opt Out Clause" by CARICOM officials because the former administration never thought signing on to the revised Treaty was a good idea. Instead, it was suggested at that time that The Bahamas would consider an associate membership instead.

"For ten years being a member of CARICOM, we [Bahamas] were comfortable with our arrangement," Mr Laing said. "We get to participate and cooperate with CARICOM in many matters. But we stayed out of matters that we thought were not in our economic interests. But all of a sudden, we now have a new arrangement that requires us to sign on, and in signing on, it has some provisions that could be problematic for us."