Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs,
 Foreign Trade and the Public Service

15th April 2008

House of Assembly Committee Room
 

Today, I want to assist the press in their work as it relates to various matters involving foreign relations and foreign trade and what my party’s position is on these matters.
 

HAITI
I would like to express serious concern about the situation in Haiti.  The Bahamas government should say what its views on this matter are, including if it foresees any impact on The Bahamas as a result of the current instability in Haiti.

The country should continue to commit to work with other Caricom countries to bring about and to maintain stability in Haiti.  Haiti’s stability is crucial to the stability and peace in The Bahamas.

It is regrettable that this instability is taking place against the backdrop of efforts to attract investment from The Bahamas to Haiti, particularly in the agricultural sector.

We note that Haiti has had the severest form of instability as a result of the sharp rises in food prices, matters which Caricom governments met on in December 2007 in a special summit and which the government of The Bahamas did not attend.

Yet there have been varying difficulties in St. Vincent, Trinidad, Guyana, St. Lucia and Grenada all because of the sharp rise in the price of flour in those countries.

The government here needs to address the question of rising costs.  When I last met in the House of Assembly, I raised the issue of the sharp rise in food and energy in the country and the fact that the government has no ideas to address them while people are often giving up food so their cars can have gas or their children’s school fees can be paid.  Even in the U.S. and certainly in other Caricom countries there is some public policy to deal with this.

I note that the International Monetary Fund has sounded the alarm, giving four reasons for the rise in food prices:
Shift of corn and other ‘food’ crop and agricultural land production to bio fuels;
Environmental reasons, including less fertilizer because of the pollution issues;
Weather pattern changes including severe droughts in Australia and other food producing countries; and
Speculation in food futures on the spot markets.

Amongst the prescriptions by the IMF are subsidies for food prices and investment in local agriculture.
 

ZIMBABWE
We are concerned about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe and believe that the election results that have not yet been published ought to be published so that the society can determine who will lead it.

We are concerned about the reports of the abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe particularly as it relates to opponents of the sitting government.

We support the rule of law and the right of self determination and call on all parties there to respect the rights of citizens to freely express their views within the law.  The government of Zimbabwe has a particular responsibility in this matter.
 

ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (EPA)
This pact to replace the Contonou Agreement, the one way preference system for access into Europe, was initialled by our negotiators last year.

The government here has accepted that they will sign the EPA on 1st June.  The Bahamas and Haiti were given six months to deal with outstanding issues in The Bahamas case with regard to public education on services.

The PLP has asked me to provide a briefing of party members on the issue including those who are party supporters who oppose the signing of the pact to see what consensus there is on the issue by the party.

In the meantime, we are concerned that the government has not included the Opposition and its supporters in any of the mechanisms for briefings on the EPA matters.

We are concerned that the true story on the EPA is not being disclosed to the Bahamian people including the fact that the EPA will require reciprocal rights to all Caricom countries just as they are offered to the European countries.  We ask the government to come clean and to have full and frank disclosure of the EPA.
 

SCHENGEN VISAS
I had a chat with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and there appears to be some progress in this area.  Our party believes that the abolition of the need for visas to enter into the European countries is important and urgent.

The procedures are about to become more complex having regard to the need for biometrics in the visa that is likely to come within a year.  This will mean that all Bahamians who want visas will have to physically travel to the issuing point for visas into Europe.  The Europeans will require everyone to give fingerprints for their visa issuance.  You can imagine the difficulties Bahamians will face with no European embassy here.
 

CARICOM SECURITY SUMMIT
We took note of the conclusions of the special summit of Heads of Government in Trinidad on 5th April.  There was nothing ground breaking that came out of the summit.  Generally, its conclusions can be supported.  However, there is the issue of the deportees and their role in crime in the region including The Bahamas.  The Caricom heads seem to suggest that the deportees from the United States play a significant role in the crime problem in our region.  The Americans and the other developed countries Canada and the U.K. do not share that conclusion.  In fact in Trinidad, the U.S. Ambassador went so far as to public deny that this was the case.

We think that while developing a Memoranda of Understanding is well and good with the developed countries, we need to have the facts and so research is a necessary component of this so that a society is not spending scarce resources on the wrong end of the issue.

It is also important to know what the constitutional issues are with regard to the proposal of following deportees when they return to their home countries, in a situation where they have committed no crime in those countries.  So while we must clearly know what the social consequences of their return is and prevail on the developed countries to stop the practices altogether, we must also be cognizant of the rights of these individuals.
 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
We are concerned generally about the lack of engagement in Foreign Affairs matters by the FNM government.  The country is not sufficiently briefed on the subjects and matters of foreign trade.  Foreign delegations to the country except for the United States do not generally seem to be afforded the respect of their positions and due notice taken of the issues that other countries want to develop with us in their relations.  For example, we now have two World expositions coming up; one in Spain later this year, the other in China in 2010.  The government has not said whether they intend to participate and on what terms.

Both governments have offered generous support for the Caricom presence including The Bahamas.  The public needs to be briefed just as the government is now seeking to make up lost ground on their bad decision last year to cancel Carifesta.  The public should know.

We agree that our principle relationship is with that of the United States but there should not be public policy of a unipolar nature.  We have the opportunities to benefit from other relationships.  The PLP tried to foster and develop these other relationships with India, the EU, Canada, and the Caricom countries including the Turks and Caicos Islands and our Spanish speaking neighbours the Dominican Republic and Cuba.  We do not think that these relationships need to suffer, denying wider opportunities for Bahamians.

We can have good relations with the United States and with other nations of the world.    We make the same observations with regard to the Bahamian Diaspora that increasingly feels abandoned by their government in Nassau.  The new Consuls General Gladys Sands and Carlton Smith have taken up their posts and I would encourage them to foster the relationships with Bahamians abroad.