{"id":6026,"date":"2018-09-11T17:16:20","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T17:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bahamastradeinfo.gov.bs\/buy\/?p=6026"},"modified":"2018-11-21T17:17:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T17:17:11","slug":"laing-explains-his-role-as-lead-negotiator-for-wto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamastradeinfo.gov.bs\/buy\/2018\/09\/11\/laing-explains-his-role-as-lead-negotiator-for-wto\/","title":{"rendered":"Laing Explains his Role as Lead Negotiator for WTO"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Laing assures that he will work closely with merchants on WTO<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_77111\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77111\" class=\"wp-image-77111 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamastradeinfo.gov.bs\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/GB-BUSINESS-OUTLOOK--300x169.jpeg\" alt=\"Laing at Grand Bahamas Business Outlook\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-77111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Mr. Zhivargo Laing: The Bahamas\u2019 Chief World Trade Organisation (WTO) Negotiator.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Business Community is showing reluctance to the potential of The Bahamas joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) as Minister of Financial Services, Trade and Industry and Immigration Minister Brent Symonette and newly appointed WTO lead negotiator, Zhivago Laing prepare to travel to Geneva, Switzerland to introduce The Bahamas\u2019 formal application into WTO.<\/p>\n<p>Eyewitness News Monday spoke with former Minister of Finance Laing on the advantages and possible disadvantages of joining the WTO and he affirmed that the negotiations do not warrant The Bahamas joining.<\/p>\n<p>Laing addressed the unknown [seemingly] fear expressed by merchants in dispelling what some may not understand about WTO.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf business people in The Bahamas did not show concern for this process, I would be alarmed because you want them [merchants] to be concerned because that means they will invest the time and energy in understanding the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is incumbent on the trade negotiating team to walk with the business community in this process.\u00a0 The government of The Bahamas \u2013 the state facilitates trade, but the trading happens by business people,\u201d Laing confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Laing assures that he will work extremely close with merchants on WTO; \u201cit is my intention fully to have fully knowledgeable involved with the process of negotiations so we can do what is helpful to our economy and not what\u2019s harmful.<\/p>\n<p>Laing also told Eyewitness News yesterday that negotiations are not cemented in stone.<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cwe\u2019re negotiating the terms of our membership because the way we operate now and the way WTO wants for countries to operate so that trade can happen freely is in conflict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need time to be able to eliminate some of those conflicts and to do it in a way that\u2019s not injurious to the Bahamian economy,\u201d Laing said.<\/p>\n<h3>Negotiators will ensure that there is\u00a0sufficient adjustment time<\/h3>\n<p>Laing explains yesterday that the entire plan of the WTO negotiations is to be able to walk away from the negotiations and have the necessary time to make whatever necessary adjustments the country needs to make in order to be compliant to WTO terms or, to decide if The Bahamas will definitely join.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c98 per cent of all the trade; all the buying and selling takes place in The World, takes place by countries that are members of the WTO and we [The Bahamas] trade with all of those countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey trade on rules that relate to them, so they get to treat each other a certain way that they are obligated to do; we don\u2019t get to be treated that way,\u201d Laing explained.<\/p>\n<p>Propelling the country to be on par with other countries in the WTO, Laing offers a more comprehensive view on the logic behind accession to WTO.<\/p>\n<p>As it relates to any possible increase in taxes, particularly Customs Duties, Laing added that \u201ccustoms duty is a regressive tax \u2013 it means that poor people in your country pay more for that tax than the rich people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, no one who wants The Bahamas to be regressive wants to maintain reliance on customs duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cWTO average level of tariff or customs duty that is lower and would not be an impediment to trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Laing confirmed that The Bahamas has not signed any agreement(s) that involves a removal of the control from the government to say who gets to invest in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bahamas will certainly still maintain an investment policy, this time enshrined in law ultimately, as to how and who can invest in what areas, even though there is prevalent foreign participation snot already taken place,\u201d Laing said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: Eyewitness News<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bahamastradeinfo.gov.bs\/trade-agreement\/ta1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> for more information on the WTO and the nation&#8217;s accession process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laing assures that he will work closely with merchants on WTO The Business Community is showing reluctance to the potential of The Bahamas joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) as Minister of Financial Services, Trade and Industry and Immigration Minister Brent Symonette and newly appointed WTO lead negotiator, Zhivago Laing prepare to travel to Geneva, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":6027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Laing Explains his Role as Lead Negotiator 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