Two trade missions are hitting Grand Bahama in the coming weeks, one from China and one from Houston, Texas, and as the business community on that island and in the wider country considers the question of international trade, chartered accountant and business mogul Franklyn Wilson said The Bahamas must take "a quantum leap forward".

Wilson asserted that The Bahamas is not where it ought to be as far as trade, but insisted that substantive trade missions coming to The Bahamas are useful, among other things, because "it is a hell of a lot less expensive" to get the attention of potential trading partners while they are on the ground in The Bahamas.

"In addition to that, just because of the fact that they are here, there are a lot of questions answered by them looking around as opposed to us showing pictures or trying to explain," he said.

Private sector engagement
Wilson raised the question of international trade pacts like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between CARIFORUM and the EU, which he said have more impact or interest within the public service.

"The private sector has hardly been engaged in that. I remember when Zhivargo Laing was the minister of state, he made quite a valiant effort to try and involve the private sector in getting to understand the EPA -- there were seminars, I remember, and there was a degree of excitement for a while, but today I don't know whatever came of that EPA thing, for example. But for a while there was some excitement, people saw opportunity, but I don't know.

"What that speaks to is really the fact that The Bahamas in terms of trade, we have to really take a quantum leap forward. It's not easy, it's not simple, I'm not trying to be negative, but there's a lot of change in our own psyche that has to happen."

He pointed out, for example, that The Bahamas has been in tourism "longer than Jamaica", but has yet to produce people like Gordon "Butch" Stewart, John Issa and others.

"Why is that? There are some reasons for it... but whatever the reasons are, the overall answer is we're not as far along the path to trade readiness as we should be 40-something years after independence. We're not as far as it would be in the best interests of the country to be.

"But the process of change has to begin with some mindset changes among the private sector," Wilson said.

In 2007 CARIFORUM concluded the EPA with Europe, a longstanding and important trading partner, in order to transform their trade relationship "into one based on reciprocity and cooperation." By engaging in the EPA negotiation process, CARIFORUM countries have carved some of the space they need to adjust to the challenges of trade liberalization. In addition, CARIFORUM States have been able to secure new opportunities for the development of businesses, jobs and their economies.

The EPA is a reciprocal trade agreement between the Caribbean Group of States of the ACP and the European Community (EC) designed to replace the trade component of the Cotonou Agreement, which was based on nonreciprocity.

Meanwhile The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.

A working party to examine the application of the Bahamas was established at the General Council meeting on 18 July 2001. Bilateral negotiations on market access are under way on the basis of initial offers in goods, and revised offers in services. The second meeting of the working party took place in June 2012.

Research failure
Wilson mentioned the conversation surrounding aragonite.

"The issue with aragonite is how do you use it, what do you do with aragonite? The most we've heard about it has been in the context -- essentially -- of shipping it over to Florida and dumping it on the beaches in Florida. That's the use that we've heard most about.

"However, I have seen products... Tony Myers, for example, has done a lot more research in this than most, and who has shown all sort of uses to which that could be put."

He said the challenge is not the lack of physical resources: it is more the lack of enterprise and entrepreneurship, and even more, he identified a lack of research into the physical resources of The Bahamas and lashed out at the College of The Bahamas.

"It remains my prayer that researchers at the College of The Bahamas will be serious -- serious -- about their commitment to research, and as they do more research, show us how we could use what we do have with greater abundance it would create opportunity for business," he said.

Wilson said that when he had been chairman of the Council of the College of The Bahamas, the Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas (UTEB) made what Wilson said was "a great case" for a reduction in the number of contact hours -- that is, the time spent in the classroom teaching -- in favor of an increase in research output.

"Well the Council agreed. "I am expressing publicly my disappointment to date in the level of research that we have seen since. It looks now as though the union used that argument as more of a pretext for some of the professionals there to turn teaching at COB into a part-time job, rather than for the purpose that they argued the case," he said.

Wilson insisted that in order to address the issue of understanding what The Bahamas has to trade is connected to research output.

"Someone has to do the research," he said. "Bush medicine and all these things -- someone has to do some research, and once people do the research, then it becomes possible for private sector people to say they will put some money in it."

Advantages
Wilson pointed out that The Bahamas is a center of international trade: business happens in The Bahamas, and business happens through The Bahamas. He reiterated the fact that proximity to the North and Central American markets and transcontinental shipping lanes makes The Bahamas a natural locus for trade. Adding that 'trade is two ways,' Wilson stressed that trade is 'about us selling them things and them buying things.'

"In terms of us selling things... there are a lot of things we do that can be sold in China," he said.

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