Over the last three years, US-Caricom bilateral trade has grown from US$15.7 billion to US$21.8 billion, an increase of 39 per cent. This was disclosed in a joint statement by the Caribbean Community and the United States, outlining the overall results of the meeting of the Trade and Investment Council (TIC) here in Georgetown on March 31, according to a press release from the Caricom Secretariat at Turkeyen.
The TIC met to review the strong and important trading and economic relationship between the member states of Caricom and the United States.
The statement said, as noted by the leaders at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, that “we recognize the positive contribution of trade among our nations to the promotion of growth, employment and development.” Moreover, they approved a new action agenda which outlines their priorities and which will guide their efforts to strengthen and deepen their trading relationship.
Since 1983, the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) has granted unilateral duty-free treatment for imports of certain eligible articles from CBI beneficiary countries, the release noted.
They discussed the operation of the CBI and how to better take advantage of the opportunities available under that initiative. And currently, the release noted, 17 countries and dependent territories receive benefits under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA). Seven of these countries and dependent territories receive benefits under the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA).
Meanwhile, the United States agreed that upon request it would begin a process to consider granting unilateral trade benefits under the CBTPA for Caribbean Basin countries and dependent territories that currently do not receive those benefits. They also shared ideas about ways to provide more opportunities for small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One new source of assistance and interactive information exchange for SMEs is SBDCGlobal.com, the release stated. This website is currently being used by SMEs in the United States and other countries in the hemisphere.
US officials are now expected to work with Caricom member states to identify ways to bring additional SMEs into the SBDCGlobal.com website.
They discussed too the work to replace the 1991 Agreement Establishing a Trade and Investment Council with a 21st century Trade and Investment Framework Agreement and took note of each others’ concerns and agreed to try to complete the negotiations as soon as possible.
Finally, they agreed that the United States will host the next meeting of the Trade and Investment Council in 2013, the release added.
