-honey, duck meat among items facing hurdles
If the Council for Trade and Economic Development is to take seriously long outstanding issues, particularly those relating to non-compliance by member states based on provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, consideration must be given to their rights to take those matters to the Caribbean Court of Justice.
This is according to Antigua and Barbuda Minister of Trade, Commerce and Industry, Chet Greene, who was chairing the two-day 46th Meeting of the COTED and who emphasised the need for compliance and to consider those seeking redress. The meeting opened on Wednesday at the CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen.
Noting that the rules of procedures governing the operations of the council will be discussed and hopefully, if finalised and approved, he said, the rules will help to deal with the longstanding issues on the agenda. These include denial of market access for certain commodities including honey into Trinidad and Tobago, the intraregional trade of frozen duck meat from Suriname, matters relating to free movement of persons, and market access issues associated with the provision of professional services in the case of external auditing across the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).