GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Trade and economic development ministers from the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) began a two-day meeting in Guyana on Tuesday against the background of many trade-related challenges facing the region, and in a geo-political environment which is changing very rapidly.

Caricom Secretary General, Dr Carla Barnett, addressing the 60th meeting of the Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED), said that the recent tariff shocks are a stark reminder of the need to diversify the region’s trade and economic relations.

“We must redouble our efforts to deepen existing and explore new markets and develop new partnerships, if the region is to advance its goals of economic growth and sustainable development,” she said.

United States (US) President Donald Trump has implemented a series of trade tariffs on countries worldwide, including the Caribbean, in a move economists and other traders say is designed to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars.

In the case of the Caribbean, Trump announced a 10 per cent tariff on most regional countries, while in the case of Guyana, the tariff is as high as 38 per cent.

Barnett told the conference that, as such, the work to address the way forward in trade relations with the United States, the bilateral negotiations with Colombia, and the outstanding certification of the Belize-El Salvador Partial Scope Agreement, must be given focused attention.

“Equally, we need to promote regional production and expand intra-regional trade by updating policies and practices to support entrepreneurship and make trade and business development easier. We also have an imperative to address the impediments to trade and remove longstanding issues of ‘non-compliance’ from the agenda.”

She said that a report on the Regional Industrial Policy will be presented at the meeting, noting “this policy can become an important aspect of the deepening of the regional integration strategy going forward, and I urge you to give focused attention as to how it will be finalised and implemented”.

Barnett said that the region also needs to more efficiently harness the competencies of its regional institutions and work more effectively together to advance the work of the 15-member community.

“Time is too short, and resources are too scarce for us to continue to work in silos when collaboration and joint effort can save resources, both human and financial, and deliver better results.”

She said that the Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat continues to seek to work collaboratively with stakeholders, “and we will see this when the secretariat team reports on work alongside partners like the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Caricom Private Sector Organisation (CPSO), on critical research and analysis on trade challenges”.

The Caricom Secretary General said she wanted to publicly recognise the work done with the CPSO on issues of trade advocacy, particularly with respect to the America First Trade Policy and related actions against certain shipping and maritime interests.

“This COTED has made progress on a number of issues. For others, finalisation of work is possible. Among these is the urgency of advancing the completion and implementation of the revised Common External Tariff and the Community’s Rules of Origin Regime,” she said, urging the trade and economic ministers to make full use of the Caricom Treaty’s rules and flexibilities as it addresses the matters before it, especially the most sensitive.