NASSAU, Bahamas - Officials from several Caribbean countries and Florida met Monday to begin discussions on how the Free Trade Area of the Americas proposal will affect workers and economies in the region.
The weeklong conference, which focuses specifically on Bahamian labor issues, also brings government and union delegates from Bermuda, Antigua, Florida, Belize, as well as more than 250 Bahamian workers from several sectors.
"Countries of the Caribbean have never engaged in trade negotiations that are so complex," said Frank Maresca, the Inter-American Development Bank's country representative.
The conference, which began Monday, is being sponsored by the Washington DC-based bank as well as the Organization of American States, the Bahamas Trade Union Congress and the Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas.
OAS representative Juliett Mallet-Philip said the conference agenda was aimed at helping delegates make recommendations to their governments on the best approach in forming the world's largest trade bloc.
The Free Trade Area of the Americas is scheduled to go online in 2005, and will bring 34 democratic countries of 800 million people into a single US$9 trillion trade block in the Western Hemisphere.
Several participants, however, have requested more time to bring their laws and tariffs in line with the FTAA proposal.
"We're not even a third of the way into the negotiations yet," Bahamian Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller said at Monday's conference. "There's no way that this thing will come into effect in 2005."
Bahamian trade unions said Sunday they were concerned the new treaty would offer little protection to workers and provide few if any policies for settling international disputes or protecting the environment.
"What is alarming is the complete lack of measures designed to protect the environment and labor rights," said Obie Ferguson, president of the Bahamas' umbrella Trade Union Congress.
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