Bahamas out of CSME and FTAA
By Rickey Singh
Guyana Chronicle
July 5, 2003
MONTEGO BAY---The Bahamas will not be signing on any time soon to either the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) or the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
When it is ready to so do, said Prime Minister Perry Christie, here for the 24th CARICOM Summit, "it must be manifestly in the best interest of The Bahamas".
Christie said that he had identified the particular issues of concerns to The Bahamas in discussions with his Community colleagues and the "consultation process" is still going on at home in relation to participation in the CSME.
He disclosed that he had invited the Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, who has lead responsibility for the CSME, to visit The Bahamas to engage civil society on the emerging single economic space that the CSME will create.
Prime Minister Arthur, he said, had accepted the invitation to travel to Nassau, capital of The Bahamas, to engage civil society representatives and others in the arrangements for the CSME and its vital importance for regional economic integration, as well as its relationship to the establishment of the FTAA.
On the question of granting a waiver for American nationals from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, Prime Minister Christie said that The Bahamas had, under the previous administration of Hubert Ingraham, signed the treaty for the creation of the court, a position adopted by own government.
The intention was that all signatory states to the treaty would follow through with the relevant ratification of the treaty but, like The Bahamas some CARICOM states are yet to do so.
Christie said that his Foreign Minister, Fred Mitchell, had obtained legal advice that The Bahamas government that Article 98 of the ICC treaty "does not allow for derogation" as the United States of America is now proposing in sought after bilateral agreements against extradition of its nationals who may be wanted for trial by the ICC.
He said that his govenment had decided against signing any such agreement and wished to be fully involved in a decision to be taken by CARICOM.
The Bahamas was not among the six Community states that have been included for cuts in US military assistance for failing to grant the exemption waiver, because it, like others, had not ratified the ICC treaty.
CARICOM states yet to ratify include Jamaica, Guyana, St.Lucia and Grenada.
Those that have neither signed nor ratified include St.Kitts and Nevis.