External affairs in an Independent Bermuda would cost between $3.3 million and $10 million a year depending on how much prominence the Island wanted on the world stage, according to the Bermuda Independence Commission report.

And the report revealed that the Progressive Labour Party supports joining both the UN and the Commonwealth.

However the Governing party told the BIC that it would only consider full membership in Caricom on the basis that "Bermuda would not become a signatory in the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and its free movement of people, nor to the Caribbean Court of Justice", the report states.

The BIC estimated that the external affairs of an independent Bermuda could cost nothing more than 0.7 percent of the annual Budget.

According to the report, that would only be if Bermuda limits its international memberships to the United Nations and the Commonwealth, and conducts most of its diplomatic relations from Bermuda, New York and London.

A Government with such a policy would require an estimated $3.3 million in annual costs plus nearly $2 million in initial start-up costs, bringing the annual cost of the external affairs of such an independent country to about $5.3 million.

If the country is seeking a more prominent place on the international stage, i.e. by "joining a number of additional international organisations with five overseas missions and increased local land and marine security", that could be done for approximately $10 million annually, with capital and start up costs of $4.5 million ? all in all, around two percent of the annual Budget.

"The actual cost of Independence would likely fall somewhere between these numbers depending on the options selected by the Government," the BIC warned.

Such a small country has a necessarily limited scope of engagement in external affairs, and the BIC noted that such affairs could be dealt with by creating a Ministry for that purpose, or by merely absorbing the job within the office of the Premier or as a Department within an existing Ministry.

It is likely that an independent Bermuda would take on the costs of joining the UN, as do many other independent nations, and of joining the Commonwealth along with all other former British territories.

What other international organisations Bermuda would join once independent, like many other details of Independence, will remain unclear until the Government puts forward a position paper outlining their stance on that issue.

The BIC stated in their report that in their submission to the Commission, the PLP stated that they would consider joining the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Organisation of American States (OAS), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Membership with the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the European Union's African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) organisation would also be considered by the PLP.

The BIC report offers breakdowns of the lower cost and higher cost options regarding external affairs, including where the country would need to have consuls and how the area could be dealt with in Government.

The office of the Deputy Governor currently carries out most of Bermuda's external affairs, to an annual cost of $650,000 paid for by the Bermuda Government. On achieving Independence, the BIC noted, this money would be saved ? a fact which was accounted for when producing the cost estimates.