The opening ceremony of the two-day Meeting will be addressed by Chair of COTED, Senator the Hon. Maxine McClean, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Barbados, the Hon. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guyana, and Amb Lolita Applewhaite, CARICOM Secretary-General (ag). Amb. Irwin LaRocque, Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration will chair the ceremony.

Ministers will hold discussions on a range of matters including the impact of rising fuel and commodity prices on the Region’s economies, the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), and the Region’s external economic and trade relations including the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

With regard to the Impact of the Rising Global Prices of Fuel and Commodities on the Region’s Economies, Ministers will consider the crisis in North Africa and its effect on the Region, and the Region’s response to the rising cost of the prices of energy and commodities.

Among the issues that will be discussed under the broad theme of the CSME are the status of implementation of the COTED decision to grant non-reciprocal preferential access for certain products from Haiti; the Treatment of Mergers and Acquisitions; and the Development of a Model Consumer Protection Bill.

Discussions with regard to the Region’s external economic and trade relations will centre on the CARICOM-Canada Trade and Development Agreement and developments in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). EPA implementation matters up for consideration include recent activities of the EPA Implementation Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat and its work plan for the near future, and the convening of the First Meeting of the Trade and Development Committee under the EPA on 9 and 10 June 2011.

The Ministerial meeting was preceded by a two-day Meeting of officials at the CARICOM Secretariat.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org