The Caribbean Community has submitted a document to the Free Trade Areas Secretariat outlining what steps its member countries are prepared to take to liberalise their agriculture sectors as a part of the FTAA.
But CARICOM’s chief FTAA negotiator was tight-lipped on exactly what was outlined in that document, which was submitted February 19, four days after the deadline for submission.
Dr. Richard Bernal, director general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), said the initial offer was made late because several member states were late in getting their data to the CRNM.
The CRNM is responsible for conducting negotiations on behalf of CARICOM countries.
The removal of barriers to trade and the subsequent implementation of a free trade area are being achieved in phases.
The first three sectors in which tariff reductions will be negotiated are agriculture, investment and services with February 15 being the date by which offers on liberalising trade in the agriculture sector were to have been submitted.
“In regard to the initial offer that is, our first set of tariff offers, we presented our offer on February 19 in Panama,” Dr. Bernal said. “We still have four countries outstanding in terms of completing the submissions.”
He said he hopes those countries will make their proposals before the next set of offers are exchanged.
With regard to investments, the CARICOM initial offer will be presented next week at the negotiating group on investment based on submissions from Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Bernal said.
So far, these are the only CARICOM countries to submit proposals on liberalising trade in the investment sector.
Dr. Bernal said the CARICOM initial offer with regard to liberalising trade with respect to the services sector will be presented at the next meeting of the negotiating group in March.
He said in addition to coordinating a CARICOM position with respect to the FTAA, the CRNM is monitoring developments in organisations such as the World Trade Organisation and the African, Caribbean and Pacific and European Union (ACP-EU) to determine what role CARICOM countries will play in these groups.
A key meeting involving ACP-EU ministers is scheduled to take place in St. Lucia next week.
In addition to the FTAA, another trade bloc that would have a significant impact on CARICOM economies is the Canada-CARICOM trade agreement.
“In regard to the Canada-CARICOM negotiations we are preparing the work for our first technical working group meeting to begin the negotiations in earnest with Canada,” Dr. Bernal said.
By Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
