United States Ambas-sador to The Bahamas John D. Rood on Tuesday said tourism in The Bahamas could be hugely affected by the enforcement of a State Department’s policy requiring Americans travelling to the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada to have passports.
Ambassador Rood, who was on a two-day visit to Grand Bahama, was addressing a joint meeting of the Rotary Clubs of Grand Bahama and the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce.
Ambassador Rood said the U.S. State Department has launched a massive campaign to inform Americans of the policy which comes into effect by January 2008. He said a period of six to nine months is being required by U.S. citizens to obtain their passports.
Ambassador Rood said he has discussed the matter with Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, who has informed that he will draft a letter with his concerns to see if there could be a delay in implementation that would benefit the interest of all involved.
“We need to get people going on this, I am a little concerned that nine months may not be enough time,” the Ambassador said. ” I have been in conversations with the cruise industry, the hotel industry to try to encourage them to provide input to the State Department because this is a proposed rule and is not yet a final rule.”
It is felt, that such policy once enforced by law, could cause a drop in the local tourism industry as it would pose a major hassle to frequent American visitors who enjoy travel freedom when coming to our shores.
Another matter that can have adverse affect on tourism is travel advisories. Ambassador Rood said even though he understands that some advisories issued by the Embassy in the past, have had a negative affect on the country, the Embassy has a responsibility to accurately inform American citizens of conditions when they get in a certain country. He added that as soon as the condition changes, then they change the advisory.
In the past, drug trafficking in The Bahamas amounted to 70 percent of illegal drugs going into the United States. With the continuous efforts of joint U.S./Bahamian relations to combat this problem, today, that number is now down to less than 10 percent.
Ambassador Rood said last month when he and Foreign Affairs Minister Mitchell made a trip to Washington, they discussed their bilateral relationship with members of the Florida Congressional delegation.
“We had a great series of meetings in which I stressed the tremendous partnership that the U.S. and The Bahamas have on a variety of fronts, in particular our joint fight against narcotics trafficking and illegal migrant smuggling,” he said.
“We told them about our $30 million dollar OPBAT cooperative counter-drug effort that seizes tons of cocaine and marijuana each year. We told them about the work the U.S. Coast Guard does with the Bahamian Defence Force, a cooperative effort that interdicted over 5,000 illegal migrants at sea last year. Those are good programmes that benefit both countries.”
The Ambassador said he and Minister Mitchell have a very candid relationship and in the scope of things that they have to deal with, they are on the same page 90 percent of the time. Many of the things they agree on include belief in transparent government, belief in the justice system’s rule of law, dangers of drug trafficking, money laundering, etc.
He said there are issues they don’t’ agree, the main one being that of Cuba. However, he clarified that he does respect the right of the Bahamian Government and Bahamian people to decide what they want to do and how they want to deal with the Cuban issue.
As Ambassador, his responsibilities include managing the Embassy, working on specific bilateral issues between our countries, consular issues and public diplomacy.
Ambassador Rood said he is also committed to promoting literacy among our young people and visited the students of Walter Parker Primary. The Ambassador has already launched a reading programme in the schools in New Providence, and will spread the programme here in Grand Bahama.
“So far I have read to primary school students in Nassau, Abaco and Eleuthera and I will visit a school here in Freeport. I am going to keep visiting schools every chance I get so the kids know how important it is to read and get a good education,” he said.
At the end of his visit, Ambassador Rood said he hopes to accomplish an outreach to children encouraging them to educate themselves through reading.
He added that one of his roles is to facilitate commercial ties between the United States and The Bahamas and as such, looks forward to getting a greater understanding of commercial areas important to the development of Grand Bahama.
He also said that he is pleased to be able to accomplish this through talks with leaders from the local Rotary Clubs, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and the Port Authority.
By LISA S. KING, Freeport News Reporter
