Tax dodging and bill dodging! responsibility dodging, you name it.
Like ants on a countertop donut, hard to pick off, then the donut gets swooped up and thrown out with all the ants!

Such a shame none of our current or former Foreign affairs/investment/Trade ministers have seen fit to tell us exactly what they have been agreeing to all these years, instead alluding to "it seems". Tying it into National sovereignty is crap, you all borrowed that into oblivion long ago.
Zhivargo Laing, Ray WInder, Leslie Miller, Ryan Pinder, all know damn well they've committed to timelines on compliance with all wto/eu-epa/carib-can/oecd/imf negotiations.
Further to that, VAT was not difficult: it is the most efficiently collected tax in the Bahamas because the private sector collects it! What did make it difficult in the beginning was the lack of preparation done by the private sector because the Government withheld information on it.
As they still do on the pending taxes and structures.

Follow the Money,
Ingraham just singing for his supper.
That's all he ever did.
The real issue with legislating for (or for that matter against) anything is it fails to account for dynamic human endeavor, the variances of what you vs. I might see, or not see as opportunity.
Quite frankly having to "renew" or re-apply year by year is a deterrent unto itself.
But I suppose the government cannot allow unfettered success, it might get out of hand.
God Forbid.

"He also noted the Celebration had accommodated 20,000 Bahamians through subsidised fares on its ship last year."
What the hell is this? subsidized by whom?
Many questions are raised by this article.

So how does this Jibe with other statements on "opening up the economy"?
One step forward two steps back. Nothing changes but the faces for 50 years.

Rubber stamped Work permits for certain specified industries or specified economic zones
smells like discrimination under WTO rules.
In any case, if our natural inclination is xenophobic and our ethic is absent,
will it trigger anything really?

But the Damn Unions were hot to trot for ILO 84 to be adopted!
Two faced hypocritical Completely non transparent shysters.
They do more harm to workers of the Bahamas than anyone else could!

WTO is much about bureaucratic "Rules unification" between countries as it is about trade.
The Benefit to Bahamians will be the unlocking of all the self provided reasons why we "can't"
(insert almost anything you can think of here) To some degree it will give Bahamians some oversight on Govt that we so desperately need.
The sad aspect to all of this is our reactionary position to damn near anything that hits us.
The private sector has a lot of catching up to do Perhaps the information will now be accessible from (dare I say it, Freely offered?) as opposed to sequestered by Government.
If not, we are in for some real pain.

Burrows aught now file charges against the Husband for harassment, stalking, threats, whatever else can stick!

Making the personal wealth acquisition path more costly to the public won't change any thing,
Locking up crooked politicians and Civil servants will.
Do they deserve a raise? Not based on performance. Are they paid adequately?
Not really.
But neither are teachers, nurses, firemen, police officers.
nepotism, cronyism, micro-management and xenophobia, Higher pay won't solve any of that.