The government yesterday announced that a delegation will be  attending the 4th Meeting Of The Working Party on The Bahamas’ accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) this coming Friday in Geneva, Switzerland.

In a release, it indicated that the delegation will be led by the by Financial Services Minister Brent Symonette, accompanied by Mr. Zhivargo Laing, Chief Negotiator for The Bahamas’ accession to the WTO.

Other senior technical officers from the Ministry of Financial Services, Trade and Industry and Immigration, The Ministry of Finance, The Ministry of Agriculture and  Marine Resources and The Bahamas Customs Department are also set the join the party  in Switzerland this week.

The release added thata number of bilateral meetings with WTO member states will precede this meeting.

The delegation also expects to conduct meetings with officials of the WTO Secretariat and other Geneva-based organisations to discuss ongoing and future technical assistance for the country.

It was also said that The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation will also join the mission as Observers.

The release also said that a debriefing session will be organized once the delegation returns “to advise on the outcomes and pertinent issues arising during this meeting and bilateral meetings with third states, and to discuss the way forward.”

In January, BCCEC’s head on WTO matters Darron Pickstock said that Oxford Economics, a global forecasting and quantitative analysis firm, planned to compile a report on the effects of the country’s accession to WTO.

That report was said to be completed sometime this month.

The Bahamas first applied to accede into WTO in 2001.

If accession negotiations and terms of WTO membership prove to be beneficial, the country intends to join WTO either later this year or in mid-2020.