Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali is calling on the private sector in the Caribbean to collaborate to remove barriers to trade that are impeding the development of regional economies.

In an article published Thursday in the Trinidad Express Newspaper, the Guyanese president, who was addressing a Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) President’s Dinner and Awards function by videoconference on Tuesday, said he would share a document with the association that deals with the barriers to trade in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) on a country-by-country basis.

He was quoted as saying: “I hope that by sharing this, your association would partner with associations across Caricom in raising your voices, enjoining a collective effort for the removal of these barriers to trade.”

The newspaper went on to outline that President Ali said he would have loved to have seen much more accomplished out of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) but that various individual barriers to trade imposed by member countries were stifling the progress.

“Some are nonsensical… some of these barriers imposed can be withdrawn overnight if we are serious about building capacity and opening up opportunities,” he told the audience, making reference also to a document from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on regional integration that noted that the “absence of a regional body with powers and accountability that can help transform community decisions to binding laws in individual jurisdictions is a key impediment.”

“So it’s not a lack of decisions. The heads are making decisions. It is the responsibility of individual states to take those decisions seriously and implement them.”

Ali added further: “This is of concern and this is what Prime Minister Mottley has been speaking of extensively. We cannot move forward regionally as a people, as a collective, if we are not willing to act in a selfless manner.”

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been mandated to take the lead in the implementation of the CSME.

The Guyanese president also told the audience of manufacturers at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, of the relative geographic closeness and strong cultural ties between T&T and Guyana, with trade being valued at more than half a billion US dollars in 2020.

He said Guyana imported US$514 million in products and services from Port of Spain, while Georgetown exported US$35 million.

The Guyana head of State, who has lead responsibility for agriculture, agricultural diversification and food security in Caricom, said the region is importing three times more than it is exporting and that the number is higher for manufactured goods which average at seven times more than what is exported.

“…And [we are] doing so when we have countries in the group with natural resources that can match it and be an alternative. We are doing so when we have energy costs in countries in a region that is as competitive as any other in the world.

“So what is lacking? What is causing this gap? Can’t we do this?” Ali asked.