Learn about barriers to market entry and local requirements, i.e. things to be aware of when entering the market for this country.
Last Published: 6/9/2016

  • Infrastructure Challenges: Expensive and unreliable electricity, high unemployment and the lack of a diversified pool of skilled labor. Given the geography of the county expensive infrastructure has to be duplicated on all the major island, this process has not happened uniformly and several islands are still challenged with the lack of basic infrastructure. 

  • High Shipping Costs: The Bahamas is an archipelago of 700 hundred islands, 29 of which are inhabited and ten considered major islands. There is access to major ports but given the sometime lower volumes of trade, the cost of shipping may be exponentially higher.  However, many of these islands benefit from incentives and legislation that waives government taxes on business inputs. 

  • Cumbersome Approval Process for FDI: Decision making is highly centralized and the approval process for procurement and foreign direct investment is opaque and provides opportunity for political interference.  American companies have cited delays in receiving approvals for foreign direct investment.   

  • Court System Delays: The nation’s court system lacks resources and is challenged to address a significant backlog of cases. The government has launched several initiatives to address the situation and recently completed a sizable investment in new infrastructure.  Businesses that seek redress from the courts can expect relatively high costs and long delays. According to World Bank’s ‘Doing Business Report,’ civil disputes can take as long as five years to resolve.

  • High Crime Rate:  Crime remains a concern for investors in The Bahamas. The homicide rate for The Bahamas for 2015 was 40 per 100,000. This compares with a rate of around 4.5 per 100,000 in the United States.  Murders rarely involve visitors to the country but U.S. Embassy Nassau has issued security messages in recent years to American visitors given the growing concern about safety in Nassau and surrounding areas on New Providence Island. 

  • Non-tariff Barriers: The Government employs non-tariff barriers to trade ranging from reserving investment in certain sectors to Bahamian investors and seasonal prohibitions on import of certain items.  Currently, the government reserves nine  sectors for Bahamian nationals, which include the retail and wholesale sectors, small-scale construction projects, fisheries and many small business activities. The Bahamas is not a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

  • Relatively High Customs Tariffs:  the average customs duty rate is 19 percent with tariffs on selected consumer goods running as high as 65%.  The country has made progress towards simplifying its tariff structure and market entry requirements for goods.

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.