business@tribunemedia.net
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2025
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Super Value chief: Tariff hits yet to wash through By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SUPER Value’s owner yesterday said it has suffered just one price hike from the US-China trade war with local businesses warning there is no room to relax despite the rivals’ 90-day tariff ‘pause’. Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that soap has so far been the only product hit by Donald Trump’s imposition of 145 percent tariffs on all imports from China with the 13-store supermarket chain’s suppliers “strangely quiet”
on the fall-out and prospect of any further price increases. “We’ve only had one price increase through the US pertaining to China. That’s soap,” he told this newspaper. “Everything else we bring in directly from China. We don’t go through the US. The US tariffs on China are not affecting us. We bring in container loads, and buy and bring it direct from China, not through the US. “The pallet loads, products where we cannot bring in container loads in from China, they are likely to be affected by the US-China tariffs. Strangely, all suppliers are quiet and not talking
about price increases. I suppose they’re sitting and hoping like we are that it’s not going to happen or nothing too big to affect the cost of living or increasing it. It’s normal; nothing to report. We’re just hoping for the best.” The US and China earlier this week agreed to a 90-day ‘pause’ in their trade and tit-for-tat tariff battle for global economic supremacy. Under the agreement, US tariffs, which as a border tax on Chinese goods, will be lowered from 145 percent to 30 percent, while China’s retaliatory tariffs on US imports will be lowered from 125 percent to 10 percent for
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RUPERT ROBERTS
SIR FRANKLYN WILSON
the next three months until early August 2025. There had been fears that The Bahamas, as a highly vulnerable, small, open and import-dependent economy, would suffer a significant inflation and cost of living increase as a result of Mr Trumps tariff policy and the Chinese retaliation given its reliance on other countries for virtually all it consumes. Tourism demand for The Bahamas was also expected
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR
MICHAEL SCOTT KC
‘Everyone praying this home run’ on Grand Lucayan sale By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER tourism minister yesterday asserted “everyone is praying this is a home run” ahead of tomorrow’s Heads of Agreement signing for the Government’s third attempt to exit the Grand Lucayan. Dionisio D’Aguilar, who was in the Minnis Cabinet that agreed the ill-fated Royal Caribbean/ITM Group deal that was ultimately scuppered by the COVID-19 pandemic, told Tribune Business that “the
devil is in the details” while voicing concerns about the Grand Lucayan buyer’s seeming lack of development experience outside mainland US. Suggesting that an investment “at least north of $200m” is needed to revive a resort long regarded as Freeport’s ‘anchor’ property, he added that it is vital to understand Concord Wilshire’s “vision” and targeted timeline for when construction will be completed and the project fully operational.
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ATTORNEYS are voicing concerns over key aspects of the Government’s proposed land reforms including how the transition to registered land is handled and the ability to handle adjudication decisions. Gilbert Thompson, an attorney at Meridian Law Chambers, told Tribune Business yesterday that the Land Adjudication Bill had “set off alarm bells” for him because it makes no provision for aggrieved Bahamians to appeal to the London-based Privy Council, the highest court in the Bahamian judicial system. The legislation, as drafted, only seems to make provision for appeals
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land adjudication decisions can be challenged. “It set off alarm bells right away because we’ve had decisions from the Court of Appeal that have had to be corrected by the Privy Council,” Mr Thompson told this newspaper. “How could you not have the Privy Council involved, the highest court in the land? “That’s definitely a very important point to bring to the Bahamian people’s attention so as not to take away their rights to a full
Court rejects tax auction bar; property already sold By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN company’s bid to prevent the Government from auctioning off its property to recover tax arrears has been rejected because a sale had already been agreed prior to a previous injunction. Earl Miller and Miller Enterprise Ltd had sought to have the injunction reinstated in a March 24, 2025, application that also requested the Supreme Court’s permission to proceed with a Judicial Review challenge to the Department of Inland Revenue’s bid to seize and auction off the property where Ron’s Brakes & Muffler Centre was based at Tonique Williams Highway/ Bozine Hill. However, Justice Carla CardStubbs, in a May 8, 2025, ruling dismissed both the Judicial Review and application for a fresh injunction after finding that the property had already been auctioned off by the Department of Inland Revenue prior to Miller Enterprise obtaining an initial stay to block the sale on February 19, 2025.
DONALD TRUMP
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Attorneys voice concern over critical land reforms By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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Miller Enterprise, which was represented by former House of Assembly speaker Halson Moultrie, had raced to the Supreme Court in a bid to block the sale of its property to recover tax arrears just six days prior to obtaining that injunction. The verdict did not disclose the amount of unpaid real property tax, but the Department of Inland Revenue succeeded in getting the first injunction dismissed on March 20. This prompted Mr Miller and Miller Enterprise to seek a fresh injunction, and permission to launch Judicial Review proceedings, four days later. They alleged that the tax authorities’ decision to sell their property was “irregular, an affront to natural justice and unconstitutional” as they had “shown every intention to meet their tax obligations despite unresolved disputes on” the unpaid tax owed. They further claimed that the Department of Inland Revenue “did not act in good faith” and “abused the process and procedures as set out in the Real Property Tax Act” by exercising the power of sale. Asserting
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hearing.” The Land Adjudication Bill, if passed into law by Parliament in its current form, provides an adjudicator - who must be an attorney with at least seven years’ conveyancing experience - and two other persons with the authority to form an adjudication tribunal. This tribunal will then assess and determine claims to land ownership in a particular area designated by the responsible minister. Once these claims are adjudicated, they will be entered into a Land Registry whose creation is backed by statute law, as opposed to the present system of lodging and recording conveyancing deeds in the registry of records at the Registrar General’s Department. Mr Thompson, though, argued against limiting the grounds of appeal over an adjudication tribunal’s decision to just “points of law” and procedural errors. He argued that determining the true and correct owners of a particular land parcel is too
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Abaco resort invests $250k to battle housing shortages By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE Bluff House Beach Resort and Marina has invested more than $250,000 into staff accommodation in a bid to resolve Abaco’s housing shortage and attract more skilled workers. Molly McIntosh, the resort’s owner, said that - equipped with both a kitchen and laundry facility - the fiveunit building also acts as a storage facility. The staff premises has been under construction for eight to nine months, and was recently completed, featuring four bedrooms and an extra room that may be turned into a bedroom as well in the future. “We just finished it. We just got done. I mean, things do take longer out here, but we’ve been building it for about nine months. It’s on the Bluff House property but it is not attached to another building. It’s a building on its own, and it has a kitchen facility for the staff,” Ms McIntosh said. “It has laundry that we use for both the staff
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