NASSAU — The Bahamas Association of Land Surveyors (BALS) has joined the growing list of professional services groups that are concerned with The Bahamas’ accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Nassau Guardian reported on May 9.
In a letter sent to Keva Bain, acting director of trade and industry in the Ministry of Finance, BALS President Emile Ledee said the association “will not open its profession to foreign competition within the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, as this cannot be considered natural”.
The crux of the matter, according to Ledee, is the lack of representation the industry would have in WTO negotiations.
“In the presentation that Mrs. Bain made to us at Luciano’s Restaurant, there was the land surveyor’s association, the engineering association and the architects present; and what really raised our heads in there was that we would not have an expert or a consultant on our behalf defending our sectors,” Ledee told The Nassau Guardian when contacted for comment yesterday. “And so what we took away was that the consultant or the parliamentarian who is negotiating could actually negotiate to have our sectors open, whether he wanted to or not, so this is our stance.”
Successive governments have been negotiating to have The Bahamas join the WTO since 2001, when the initial application was submitted under the Ingraham administration. However the Minnis administration is the first to set a definitive timeline of full accession by mid-2019.
