A section of The Bahamas’ Freeport port area.
A multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by the Bahamian Government against Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) has been dismissed by an international arbitration panel in what has been described as a landmark decision that could significantly shape the country’s economic future.
At the same time, the ruling confirmed that the State maintains regulatory control over the Freeport port area and remains entitled to seek future payments, through to 2054, under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement that, in 1955, established the city of Freeport as a 150,000-acre free trade zone.
The decision was issued in a partial final award on February 27, 2026 by a three-member international tribunal comprising Sir Anthony Smellie, King’s Counsel, former Cayman Islands chief justice; Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, former United Kingdom Supreme Court president; and Dame Elizabeth Gloster, a former judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
The ruling brings closure to the most heated chapter of a protracted legal clash between the Prime Minister Philip Davis-led Government and the GBPA, centred on the financial and go
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