Vexed Bermoothes

The ever anxious Bermuda rumour mill is floating the idea that King Ewart and the PLP have been toying with the idea of “changing teams” from the UK to the US.  (I have no idea if the rumour has any substance.)

Some say this might make sense as our economic and social links today are often tighter with our American cousins than with the “mother country” of old.

But what exactly does this mean?  Here are the facts as I know them:

Well first, the UK would have to approve it.  Which they’d do in a heartbeat if there was a referendum on the issue (well duh!).

But being a British Overseas Territory is not the same as having “free association” with the US.   For example, as a BOT citizen you have rights and privileges across the EU.  And when your government trainwrecks, the UK has an obligation to step in and help set things right (as Iron Mike recently discovered in the Turks).

If you want “free association” with the US, first you have to be an independent nation, with all that entails.  Second, they have to be willing to assume some responsibility for you.

You could then become an “associated state” of the US.  The specific programme is called the Compact of Free Association, which is administered by a backwater of the US Department of the Interior.

The Compact states are sovereign and conduct their own foreign affairs.  This means that such a deal would not give Bermudians a US passport, nor open the door to US immigration into Bermuda.  It would not give the US any degree of “supervision” of our government, nor would it give us any representation in Congress.  We’d still have our own laws and constitution for our politicians to ignore.  Simply, under the Compact the US agrees to handle defence as well as opens some social programmes to the countries.

It would be a bit of a stretch to include Bermuda in the Compact – the US had responsibility for those countries stemming from WWII.  I don’t see much in the way of benefit to Bermudians either – except that it might make it easier for someone to lessen the insecurities and sell the idea of independence.  It would make little sense for us to be associated with a group of relatively impoverished Pacific islands.

Don’t mix this up with what the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have.  They are commonwealths or territories of the US … their citizens are Americans … and those states do not have the right to declare independence unilaterally.  I doubt that King Ewart would want that status anyway as it would mean a loss of sovereignty for Bermuda.

The UK has declined to offer “free association” of its own for the overseas territories, as it obliges them to assume responsibilities for the countries without any real oversight powers within those territories.  And Bermuda’s recent activities provide a case study on that point.

I would be surprised if the US would entertain such a deal for several reaons.  First, it would be a hard sell to Congress after this administration has demonized Bermuda as a tax threat, and second it would open the door for lots of ailing Caribbean nations also looking for a sugar daddy.