The government of the Bahamas may have signed the country up to participate in the CARICOM Single Market Economy (CSME) as early as December 2004, claims John Pinder, President of the Bahamas Public Services Union.
Mr Pinder made his revelation during a recent panel discussion on the CSME where he told an audience of legal and financial experts and members of the public that "credible persons" had informed him that the signing took place on December 21, 2004.
"I have received some information that they have already signed on to this thing," Mr Pinder revealed.
"I got this information that they already signed as far back as December. And I want to say that is part reliable source, because the persons who would have said that to me are credible persons," he claimed.
The Bahamas' participation in the single market is a hotly debated topic, with many experts and observers believing that the country stands to lose a lot more than it will gain from the removal of barriers to trade and movement of labour.
The government itself has not fully embraced the CSME ideal, and has decided to opt out of certain aspects of the deal, including the free movement of people, the Caribbean Court of Justice at the appellate level, the single currency and monetary union, and the Common External Tariff.
However, speaking at the same discussion forum, Brian Moree, senior managing partner of Mckinney, Bankcroft and Hughes, warned that even with these reservations, participation in the CSME would require wholesale legislative changes.
"Regardless of the reservations, we would have to go through a very significant exercise of amending our laws to bring them in line with harmonised regimes in a whole range of areas, including customs, competition policy, consumer protection, banking and securities, intellectual property rights, standards and technical regulations, regulations in labelling of food and drugs and the list goes on," he observed.
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