By MARTELLA MATTHEWS, Guardian Business Reporter, martella@nasguard.com

The ability of The Bahamas Government to selectively grant concessions to certain investors, such as the allowances to Kerzner International for the $1 billion Phase III expansion, may be severely disadvantaged by impending global trading agreements, according to an FTAA official.

At the monthly meeting of the local branch of Skal - an international organisation that brings together managers and executives from various branches of the travel and tourism industry, Hillary Deveaux, chair of the Services Group on FTAA explained to the public and private sector tourism partners that the "most favoured nation treatment" of the World Trade Organisation specifies that all countries within the organisation receive equal treatment.

"If you have a situation where you allow an entity from a member state to operate in your jurisdiction with certain concessions, you have to offer those concessions to members of every other member state," he said.

Relating this clause to The Bahamas, Mr Deveaux explained that under the most favoured nation (MFN) clause, hotel operators on the Cable Beach strip would be justified in requesting the same concessions as those granted to the Kerzner group.

"In a situation like that if we were members of the WTO, FTAA, there would have to be given considerations to similar situations," he said. "If we gave 'Kerzner' concessions, more than likely we'd have had to have given every hotel counterpart whose owners where members of a member state the same kind of consideration."

Mr Deveaux noted that because The Bahamas is not a member of WTO, the Government has the freedom to pick and choose how it wishes to grant incentives.

The FTAA Chair also outlined transparency as another area through which impending regional and global trading agreements could impact tourism. According to Mr Deveaux, transparency, which he described as critical in services due to the highly regulated nature of this sector, requires that all potential services investors to a jurisdiction be informed at the onset of all the possible restrictions they would face in that particular jurisdiction.

He continued that in the FTAA, the United States is pushing for the widest possible application of transparency and has even proposed having advanced notification and the freedom for affected parties to comment on proposed legislations. "There is to some extent a strong objection to this proposal by the smaller states," he added.

In his presentation to the group, Mr Deveaux also responded to recent public statements by a local anti-globalisation group, BARF (Bahamians Agitating for a Referendum on FTAA). Addressing the call for a referendum, Mr Deveaux said that the Government of the day should decide how the country approaches the various globalisation initiatives. "It should be noted that the former administration did not seek the nation's approval when it applied for membership in the WTO," he said. "It's also interesting to note that no referendum was sought on the Bahamas' membership in the United Nations, the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank, CARICOM or the Caribbean Development Bank."

He assured the group however that although the Government has agreed to FTAA negotiations, it has not agreed to sign onto any agreements. He added that most of the 34 countries involved in FTAA have indicated that they will not sign on to FTAA unless they can determine that there will be some benefit for the economies of their respective jurisdictions.

Giving his views on The Bahamas' dilemma, Mr Deveaux said that since the country is going to be faced with the realities of these trade initiatives, becoming involved so the country has a method of dealing with potential trade disputes is advisable. "There seems to be to a great extent a level playing field in the WTO and hopefully the FTAA," he said. "That is why it is important for us to give some consideration to looking at these trade regimes with a view of bringing some degree of order into our system."