AS excitement builds about the impending brief visit of US President Barack Obama, the American Chamber of Commerce thinks that it represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to expand trade via the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI).

The American Chambers of Commerce Jamaica (AMCHAM) and Trinidad and Tobago are currently piloting an initiative aimed at expanding trade and investment in services between Caricom and the United States.

The group hopes to establish a new regime dubbed Services to the Caribbean (SOCA), to advance executive, legislative, and business-to-business (B2B) initiatives between Caricom businesses and the US. Ultimately, AMCHAM believes that the services sector is the way to expand economic growth and jobs for Jamaica and its Caricom neighbours.

“CBI expires in 2020 and we have no doubt that it will be renewed, but the problem persists with how relevant it is when it was launched in 1983 and was focused on goods, free trade zones and manufacturing for exports”, vice-president of Manchester Trade and advisor to SOCA, David Lewis, stated via Skype at the AMCHAM public forum on SOCA initiative on Wednesday.

Manchester Trade, based in Washington DC, has been in business for two decades providing strategic trade and business advisory services to American and international clients in areas such as trade negotiations, export development, investment promotion, and legislative advocacy. It works with its clients to advance domestic and global business and policy interests in the US market and abroad.

“The US president is coming to Jamaica to meet with the prime minister on April 9 and there is a wonderful opportunity to bring the issue up, and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I think if we then patch that in with the business initiative we are working on, you end up having a good coalition effort,” Lewis said.

“We need to do it this year, because when we get to fall at the end of the year we begin the season of pre-election, and by then it’s going to be very difficult to get their attention on an issue which is foreign and not critical to them,” he added.

The AMCHAM initiative, which was launched in Washington DC two years ago, seeks to refocus the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), under which Caribbean countries and Central America receive several tariff and trade benefits to the US, to include services as the dominant sector of Caricom economies and of US-Caricom trade and investment.

“We want the Caribbean trade preference relationship to be a modern 21st century one, which complements the best of the CBI goods with the potential and the reality of servicing dominant economies in the Caribbean including manufacturing,” he added.

Lewis stated that in 2008, Uruguay mobilised its relationship with the US and went from US$100 million in services exported to the US, to US$1.3 billion last year. The country’s free trade zone which totalled nine, grew to 13, creating roughly 16,000 jobs in the service sector.

“We took our decision from what Uruguay did. A small country with only 3.5 million people, no free trade agreement and very far away from the US — but through their trade and investment agreement focused on services as the key business areas to start up and mobilise their relationship with the US,” Lewis stated.

The group is now in discussions with members of the US Congress about getting a part of the legislation passed this year.

“You really want to meet with your US business counterpart and discuss how we can maximise trade and investment in services that we currently have. That aspect, the business-to-business matchmaking, will help us to see the value added to businesses in the region and the recruitment needed,” he added.

Caricom goods exported to the US in 2012 totalled US$12 billion, down from US$32 billion in 2005. US goods exported to Caricom in 2012 were US$19 billion, down from US$40 billion in 2005. Data indicates that in 2012 Caricom exported about US$9.6 billion in services to the world while importing US$6.6 billion, showing a clear competitive export edge for the region’s services sectors, according to AMCHAM.