Attorney says Bahamas faces too many risks

By MINDELL SMALL,Guardian Staff Reporter mindell@nasguard.com

Continuing to voice strong opposition to the proposed Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) attorney Paul D. Moss said The Bahamas faces too many risks if it signs on to it.

Mr Moss is Chairman of the group 'Bahamians Agitating for a Referendum on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (BARF)'

Over the past three years BARF has been seeking to highlight what it refers to as the "dangers" of not only the CSME but also the WTO and FTAA. BARF said it studied the three agreements and found that they have similarities.

In focusing on the Right of Establishment, namely Articles 30-36 and Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Mr Moss said, "Contrary to what Minister Fred Mitchell and CARICOM High Commissioner A Leonard Archer have said - that the CSME is no big deal and that nothing will change if we sign on and that opponents are prejudice against other parts of the Caribbean - I want to tell you that I have great love and respect for my brothers and sisters in the Caribbean and that the CSME is a big deal."

He then quoted Dr Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of St. Lucia, who recently said CSME, the most significant development in Caribbean integration, would bring dislocation.

Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados, who is charged with responsibility for CSME development in the region, said CSME was the most complex, ambitious and difficult enterprise ever contemplated in the region.

"And I agree with both Prime Ministers whose views are diametrically opposed to our minister and high commissioner," said Mr Moss.

"You would have also heard the minister say that we will have reservations concerning the free movement of persons. Whilst the reservations are debatable, I will show you how free movement will happen notwithstanding the reservation," he added.

CCJ hurdles

He said Article 32 of the CCJ prohibits any law or policy that The Bahamas may have which is designed to restrict nationals of member states from creating and managing economic enterprises.

Economic enterprises include any type of organisation for the production of trade in goods or the provision of services and is owned or controlled by any person or entity of a member state.

"What this means is that while you may have a reservation, you cannot exclude or restrict any citizen of, say, St. Kitts, from coming here to set up shop as a hairdresser. In other words, setting up shop to compete with those of you who are in the business," he explained.

"The same article refers to companies. This means that, say, a construction company from Montserrat, or pre-school from Belize can come to The Bahamas and set up shop and compete with those of you in the business. I submit that this is tantamount to free movement."

He pointed out that Articles 7 and 8 of the CCJ, which deal with non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality and the most favoured nation treatment, serve as the protector of the right of establishment thereby entrenching the right of the movement of labour to The Bahamas.

The BARF Chairman further noted that under the Article, The College of The Bahamas, which charges a higher price per credit for non-Bahamians, would not be permitted to continue that practice.

"Put simply, Bahamian students would have to compete for seats at COB and they will pay the same rate as their fellow Caribbean students."

Blunt warning for CARICOM

Under the heading, "Stop the deception - region must prepare for risks to single market," Economist Professor Clive Thomas also weighed in on the debate. Professor Thomas said because CSME is market driven, it runs the risk of falling prey to the pitfalls of market-determined scenarios - therefore the region must have compensatory arrangements in place.

Professor Thomas is the Director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Guyana and the leading economist of the 15-member CARICOM community.

He gave a blunt warning to the governments of the Caribbean in a speech on May 17, saying, "To my mind it does not require great jurisprudence to recognise that 14 sovereign states (Montserrat is a member but not independent), cannot create a single economic space - a single market perhaps, but never a single economic space, in any meaningful way.

"Political union is the inescapable logic of a single economic space, given the world we inhabit."

Thomas added that trade liberalisation gives way to preference erosion, which could devastate small, vulnerable economies.

"What is at risk", he declared, "is far greater. We put at risk the loss of a distinctive society still in the making. We put at risk a loss of culture; and ultimately, we put at risk a loss of humanity."