By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ has already signed up to obligations that “go beyond” those of World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries, a senior official yesterday calling for a “balance” that would see this nation receive the benefits associated with WTO accession.

Viana Gardiner, director of trade in the Ministry of Financial Services, told a Bahamas Institute of Financial Services seminar that the Bahamas’ obligations under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which it signed on to in October 2008, already “go beyond”, those of several countries that are full WTO members.

“It’s a bit of an irony for the Bahamas, because everyone who is in the EPA are members of the WTO except for us,” Mrs Gardiner said.

“We actually have WTO obligations by virtue of the fact that the Government signed the EPA. We certainly have the benefits of the EPA, but we don’t have the benefits associated with WTO, which is an issue because we are not members but we have obligations that go beyond what some countries in WTO have by virtue of the fact that we are a part of the EPA.

“I would like to see that balanced. I would like to see us accessing the benefits of WTO if, in fact, we are going to have the legal obligations that go with it.”

The Government is moving towards becoming a full WTO member by December 2014. Mrs Gardiner added that the while there was still much work to do, the Government was making progress towards that goal.

“There is a target level of preparedness, and then there is the strategy towards preparedness,” she said.

“Today I would say that the Government still has work to do. If you ask me in a year’s time I would say we are closer to the target.”

As to the speed of the WTO accession process, Mrs Gardiner said: “It depends on whether we get the public and private sector in a state of preparedness. It could be done in a short space of time. The issue is not the time but the intensity with which we move.

“The Government has taken a stance. It wants to make sure the public is very much aware of what’s going on. The intention is to consult continuously as the process goes forward.”

Mrs Gardiner noted that the Bahamas had first applied for WTO full membership in 2001, though it did not submit a Memorandum of Trade regime until 2011.

“What happened was that the Caribbean region got involved with negotiations on the EPA, and the Government did not have the capacity to negotiate both simultaneously; both are very arduous tasks,” she said.

“What happens with access to WTO is that each of the member states has to agree that the Bahamas should accede. If one of them of has a problem with us that is a non-starter. If the EU has a problem or China has a problem, that is a non-starter.

“We have to be prepared as far as the international community is concerned, and that means that we have to have certain legislative reforms in place and we have to negotiate satisfactory market access for various businesses into our economy,” said Mrs Gardiner.

She added that the Government would have to protect the sensitive areas of the Bahamian economy.

“There is a misconception that Wal-Mart is going to move down the street and businesses are going to get wiped out. That’s not the objective. We are going to have to protect the sensitive areas and our trade partners are aware of this,” said Mrs Gardiner.

She added that the Bahamas needs sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) legislation regardless of whether it accedes to the WTO.

“We need the SPS regime. We need the laboratories to test the goods that are coming in right now, whether we accede to WTO or not. There are certain things we don’t know about products coming in to the Bahamas. We need the Standards Bureau, we need to know whether the goods meet acceptable standards,” said Mrs Gardiner.