business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2025
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‘Everybody is scared as hell’ on mounting Trump tariff confusion t A$IBPT BOE VODFSUBJOUZ IJUUJOH #BIBNJBO 4.&T t 4PNF TBZ TIJQNFOUT BMSFBEZ TUSVDL CZ 64 MFWZ t 'FX IBWF A1MBO # GPS JNNFEJBUF QSJDF JNQBDUT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN small business adviser yesterday warned “everybody is scared as hell right now” given the “chaos and mass confusion” caused by Donald Trump’s daily-changing trade and tariff policies. MARK A TURNQUEST Mark A. Turnquest, founder of the 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre, told Tribune Business some of his small and medium-sized (SME) business clients had informed him “this is the first time the immediate impact of a price hike has been felt so soon” even though the US president again reversed course yesterday by postponing tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports for another month. However, the uncertainty caused by the constant shifts in White House policy is disrupting US-based supply chains that Bahamian businesses of all sizes have come to rely upon. Mr Turnquest said clients, as well as his Association’s members, have told him that product shipments already paid for have suddenly increased in price after being caught by the tariff imposition earlier this week. He told this newspaper that Mr Trump’s threatened trade war with the largest US trading partners has coincided with when many Bahamian companies typically place orders for fresh inventory after selling out of Christmas and New Year stock. And, warning that the “Easter special ain’t special no more”, he added that very few SMEs will “have no
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Ex-PM blasts ‘$1bn’ moorings monopoly By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
t .JOOJT EFNBOET OFX XBUDIEPH QSPCF EFBM AN ex-prime minister yesterday accused the Government of handing a “$1bn” t )JT BENJOJTUSBUJPO monopoly to well-connected insiders as he called for the FTUJNBUFE N SFWFOVF Bahamas Moorings deal to be probed by a newly-created t 8BOUFE A"VUIPSJUZ PS corruption watchdog. Dr Hubert Minnis, fol111 OPU QSJWBUF FOUJUZ lowing his mid-year Budget address in the House of Assembly, told Tribune Business his administration had estimated that a properly managed and maintained nationwide moorings and anchorage system could generate as much as $50m per year in revenue. Based on the now-aborted 21-year lease granted to Bahamas Moorings, he argued that this deal - which gave the company “the right to install and operate mooring services in the Exumas or elsewhere in The Bahamas” - would have generated more than $1bn in income for the company and its owners over its entire lifetime if it
was extended to other Family Islands. Disclosing that the $50m estimate excluded New Providence, Dr Minnis told this newspaper he had held initial discussions about creating a full-owned government “authority” or private-public partnership (PPP) to install, manage and maintain moorings fields outside the Bahamian capital. The latter model would have seen the Government team with a private company, which would have been responsible for overseeing operations.
Explaining that the plan never advanced because his administration became preoccupied with dealing with Hurricane Dorian’s devastation in late 2019, then the COVID-19 pandemic just six months later, the former prime minister said he was adamantly opposed to the Bahamas Moorings deal’s structure because it concentrated earnings and profits in a private monopoly owned by just a few persons. Instead, Dr Minnis said both the Authority and PPP model would have ensured a portion of the mooring fees
DR HUBERT MINNIS collected from visiting boaters would have been returned to the Family Island communities where these anchorages were located via their local government authorities, thereby helping to grow local economies. And, given the allegations of “conflict of interest” and other unanswered questions surrounding the Bahamas Moorings deal, Dr Minnis demanded that it
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Realtor’s ‘fast track’ via expansion to Eleuthera By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
CARLTON RUSSELL
DEAN SPYCHALLA
A PROMINENT Bahamian realtor yesterday said his firm plans to be “very instrumental” in Eleuthera’s growth with its newly-unveiled Governor’s Harbour office set to be followed soon by a Harbour Island premises. Mario Carey, principal of MCR Better Homes and
Gardens Real Estate Bahamas, told Tribune Business the company has made “a substantial investment” in establishing a physical presence in central Eleuthera and forecast that business volumes “will fast track in a good way” despite the island’s ongoing electricity and water woes. Describing Eleuthera’s real estate market as “brisk”, he
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Trade chief pledges 60% slash in key food prices By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Trade Commission’s chairman yesterday pledged that consumers can expect to see a 20-60 percent reduction in the cost of frequently-consumed food items by this summer. Speaking at the Office of the Prime Minister’s weekly media briefing, Barry Griffin said Super Value’s much-touted egg price reduction is “only the beginning” and several other products will be sourced directly from
SENATOR BARRY GRIFFIN suppliers in the Caribbean and Latin America. He added that the National Trade Diversification Programme is working to connect Bahamian businesses with international
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set several terms and conditions relating to the Sarkis wins bid she of the examiner’s appointment. for ‘examiner’ timing This, she ordered, will happen either by June 1, of CCA 2025, or earlier if the New By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SARKIS Izmirlian’s bid to have an independent examiner investigate the business affairs of Baha Mar’s main contractor has been approved by the New Jersey federal bankruptcy court. Judge Christine Gravelle, in a March 5, 2025, order rejected CCA Construction Inc’s arguments against such a move although
York State Supreme Courts appeals division prior to that date upholds Mr Izmirlian’s $1.642bn fraud and breach of contract damages award against CCA Construction Inc and its two Bahamas-domiciled affiliates, CCA (Bahamas) and CSCEC (Bahamas). All three entities are subsidiaries of China Construction America (CCA), which in turn is owned by China State Construction and Engineering
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