Bermuda will walk a perilous Independence path if it breaks away from the United Kingdom-based legal system and customs and traditions that currently makes international business feel ?comfortable? about operating on the Island.

Two organisations representing the majority of the international firms which generate the Island?s immense wealth have restated their strong concerns about the effects of any change to the current status quo.

And it was being speculated in some reports last night that a Press conference being called this morning by the governing Bermuda Progressive Labour Party will address aspects of the recently published Bermuda Independence Commission report.

If so, it comes within hours of a clearly stated warning about potential adverse impact to the Island?s future status and attractiveness to big business posed by Independence.

Late yesterday two of the Island?s big players, the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC) and the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR), reiterated their view of the Independence debate.

In doing so the two bodies also cast further embarrassment on the BIC?s claim that it could find no cases of independence being decided by referendum.

But the referendum debate palls to the more serious concerns expressed by the two organisations ? concerns which both feel have not been fully reflected in the BIC report or subsequent media coverage.

That is why the two bodies have made the decision to publicly restate their view.

Among their concerns are whether the Bermuda dollar will be able to sustain real value after Independence and concern that joining the Caribbean Community and Common Market would be a negative step for the Island in view of the cost involved and the resulting economic ties not being materially beneficial to the Island?s international business sector for which the US and UK are the largest markets. But Bermuda?s close links with the UK through customs, law and social and political structure are highlighted as golden reasons why international business continues to locate to and patronise the Island to such a mutually successful degree.

In a joint statement the ABIC and ABIR said: ?Bermuda is one of the preferred jurisdictions in the world in which to do business. Bermuda?s attractiveness is based on a number of important features, including the Island?s historically stable social and political structure; its participation in the United Kingdom?s legal system, framework, customs and traditions with which international business partners are comfortable; and the total mix of economic costs and benefits of doing business on the Island.?

Both organisations believe that the Independence issue should be settled through a referendum to ensure a stable and democratic outcome.

The statement went on to warn that any alteration to the commercial law, legal apparatus, and continued common law development of the United Kingdom legal system and the risk of mixing it with other judiciary systems less central to the international financial services sector, could impair Bermuda?s international business.

Independence would result in higher costs for many international businesses, such as through taxation, in the view of the two organisations.

And then there is the concern about nationality and passports and, in the words of the statement: ?The prospect of Bermudians losing UK citizenship and the right to live and work in the EU, where many of our members have overseas operations.?

In response to the BIC?s claim that it could find no examples of referendum being used to decide sovereignty the ABIR made public its submission in February to the office of Premier Alex Scott giving details of the extensive use of referendums to decide sovereignty around the globe.

Since 1981 some 26 countries have become independent with all but two deciding the issue through a referendum. The submission also stated that between 1866 and 1993 there were 240 national referenda to decide sovereignty across the globe.

The ABIR submission added: ?Since decolonisation of the British Empire began in 1947, referenda have determined Newfoundland?s decision to join Canada; the 1956 decision by British Togoland to reject independence and incorporate with Ghana; Jamaica?s decision to 1961 to walk away from the West Indian Federation and become independent; Singapore?s decision to first join and separate from the East Asian Federation in 1962 and 1965; Anguilla?s choice to secede from its association with St. Kitt?s-Nevis in 1967; and Gibraltar?s wish to remain a British territory rather than incorporate into Spain in 1997.?

In a final warning both the ABIC and ABIR pointed out that a decision for the Island to become Independent would be irrevocable.