KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, is leading Jamaica’s delegation to the 59th Meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in Georgetown, Guyana.

The two-day meeting which commenced Wednesday will bring together trade ministers and other officials from across the Caribbean to discuss key regional trade and economic issues such as the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), the free movement of community nationals and matters affecting the regional trade in goods including requests for suspension of the Common External Tariff (CET) on specific products.

Matters relating to renewable energy, the work of the Caricom Competition Commission and the status of the Community Intellectual Property Framework are also top of the agenda for Jamaica.

“I look forward to participating in this meeting of the council as we seek to promote an increase in exports by Jamaican companies including through regional trade.  Prior to going to Guyana, the ministry convened a meeting with stakeholders from the private sector in Jamaica and we anticipate addressing their concerns over the coming days, together with some core issues affecting the wider regional private sector,” Johnson Smith said.

At the 58th meeting of COTED held in May 2024, Johnson Smith paid particular attention to matters affecting regional trade in sugar and cement, developments concerning tariff adjustments to condensed milk, the supply of frozen concentrated orange juice and refined petroleum products, among others.   Several of these matters will again be on the agenda.

Matters on the external trade agenda that the ministers will focus on at the 59th session include multilateral developments within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as well as the Caricom-Colombia concluding negotiations for additional preferential market access within the scope of the 1994 Caricom-Colombia Trade, Economic and Technical Co-operation Agreement.

COTED is a Caricom decision-making body which, among other things, supports the production, quality control and marketing of industrial and agricultural commodities, and oversees the operations of the Single Market and Economy.