Fellow Ministers of Government
Their Excellencies Ambassadors to the Caribbean Community
Distinguished Delegates
Students
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Twenty-Sixth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development.

This is my first COTED meeting and it is my distinct honour to have been asked to chair the sessions over the next two days.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are living in a fast-changing world. A few short months ago, global preoccupation lay with agriculture and finding solutions to the rising cost of living and the scarcity of food supplies. Today, we meet at a time when the world is focused on finding solutions to the global financial crisis that has gripped the developed nations and which is now beginning to be felt in small developing states like ours in the Caribbean.

Such issues demand that we collectively seek to find ways to manage these challenges which in many ways are parallel to the worst the world has encountered in modern history. Two days ago, at the Bureau of Heads of Government in Antigua and Barbuda, Heads deliberated on the issue of the global financial situation and acknowledged the need for concerted approaches at the regional level to safeguard not only the financial sector, but also the Tourism and Hospitality industries, remittances on which many of our citizens depend and foreign direct investment to the Region.

While the immediate future appears challenging, I have confidence in the resilience of our Region which, in its 35 years as a Community has weathered external shocks and at the same time forged resolutely ahead with deeper integration.

At this meeting, we will consider a number of issues which are vital to the deepening of our integration movement. The CARICOM Single Market and Economy, the cornerstone of our Region’s development is the first substantial item on our agenda. The CSME provides for a Single Economic Space within which there would be the free movement of skills, capital, inputs and raw materials, as well as services. It also provides for production integration in various forms of cooperation among enterprises, be it for complementary production and collaboration or for a single economic enterprise producing in more than one Member State.

COTED will receive reports on the functioning of several key facilities and institutions that the Community has put in place during the course of this year as part of the CSME architecture. These include the CARICOM Development Fund which was launched in July and the CARICOM Competition Commission which was inaugurated in Suriname in January. These institutions, mandated by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, are both geared at propelling the CSME into a more effective and structured environment.

Over the past weeks, a number of meetings were held aimed at consolidating the gains so far in the CARICOM Single Market which enters its third year of operation in 2009. In this regard, I wish to extend gratitude to the officials who recently conducted meetings here in Georgetown on the Free Movement of Skills and Contingent Rights and those who have worked on shaping the agenda for this meeting.

The free movement of skills is one of the pillars of the CSME and due care must be given to the management of such movement and the rights to be accorded the approved categories of skilled workers. The status of these regimes and the recommendations flowing from the meeting of officials will come under focus during our deliberations over the next two days.

Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, the focus of the world is once again turning to towards free trade as a remedy to the current global economic woes, as we in the Region must continue the movement for free and fair trade. Our external trade negotiations continue to engage the resources of the Community in a significant way and this meeting will have full and lengthy discussions on a number of issues in this area. Critical among these is the preparation for Negotiation of a CARICOM-Canada Trade and Development Agreement.

Even as we prepare for negotiations with Canada the implementation of the recently signed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between CARIFORUM and the EC is engaging our attention. It is critical to bear in mind that if we are to move forward and reap maximum benefits of the EPA, or any other trade agreement, we must first ensure the private sector is well equipped and energized to take hold of the opportunities offered by these agreements.

Outstanding matters in relation to the CARICOM-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement signed in 1998, and the status and relevance of this agreement given the EPA will be examined here over the next two days.

This meeting comes at a convenient juncture since in two weeks the CARICOM-Cuba Summit will be convened in Cuba. The Community had entered a Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement with Cuba in July 2000, and while the agreement is provisionally applied between Cuba and at least eight Member States, there are, of course, outstanding matters which require our attention. We hope to conclude on these matters at this meeting.

Our participation in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) of the World Trade Organisation will occupy our attention at this meeting. We are well aware that there are renewed efforts in Geneva to conclude this Round of Negotiations and we must prepare ourselves to reengage in these negotiations. We must ensure that our concerns as small developing states are fully reflected in the final outcome of these talks.

During our deliberations, the Caribbean’s concerns with respect to the impact of these negotiations on the Region’s key exports into Europe will also be addressed here. Given its precarious position on the European market, the Caribbean banana industry will also be a focus at this meeting.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m sure you will agree with me that with such a heavy schedule to complete in two short days, we need to get down to the business at hand. Be assured that our aim is for fruitful deliberations and accelerated action towards progress.

I thank you.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org