By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk, Inderia@nasguard.com

Only two of this nation's sectors stand to be exempt from the current Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) services schedule the government has negotiated with the European Union: telecommunications and real estate.

Making it clear, The Bahamas has not signed any part of the EPA agreement to date, State Minister for Finance Zhivargo Laing yesterday declared that when it does, the nation's communications provider and real estate sector will be protected.

"This isn't even up for discussion with us," Laing told members of the Bahamas Real Estate Association (BREA) yesterday, receiving a round of applause afterwards. "[We chose] telecommunications because of the pending privatization of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and the real estate sector because of the sensitivity of the sector to foreign participation."

The services schedule includes 155 service sectors and The Bahamas, falling into a category as a More Developed Country in the CARIFORUM context, is required to make offers in 116 sectors.

However, real estate was not one, Laing said, because the government needed more time to develop a comprehensive framework for the development of that sector and would consult BREA and other stakeholders before making decisions.

On the bright side, he added that there were no restrictions on commercial establishment, which means that Bahamian realtors will be allowed to offer this service in the EU.

This move is likely welcomed by many in this country's real estate industry who had concerns of bigger European firms swooping in on their territory. However, it is an opportunity for countries like Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic to snap up. That promise resides under the terms of Code 822 in the United Nations Statistical Service document.

This involves the leasing, renting or appraising of houses and other residential and commercial property, sales of residential and non-residential buildings and sales of residential vacant land on a fee or contract basis.

According to Laing, the next part of the exercise involves determining how the non-Bahamian service provider will be allowed to deliver the service, which could be done in one of four ways. Mode one is a cross-border supply, he explained, where the supply of a service into The Bahamas is from a provider outside The Bahamas without either party moving, for example services provided via the internet or by fax.

"We can determine that for this particular service sector that's the only way I'm going to allow you to do that in my country," he said.

Mode two is consumption abroad, where the movement of Bahamians outside The Bahamas to purchase, for example real estate, services abroad. Mode three is commercial presence or the physical establishment of a branch or subsidiary of a foreign real estate company in The Bahamas and mode four is the temporary movement of persons into The Bahamas to provide the service.