It is a pleasure for Grenada to be Chairing the Thirty-Sixth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).
Colleague Ministers, our Community is at yet another defining epoch in our development. Indeed, there is much skepticism among segments of our stakeholder groups, which has often-times weakened the case for the work of the COTED.
We must do two things through the important work at this 36th COTED_
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Honourable Minister, I take this opportunity to welcome you - certainly not to your first COTED, but in your capacity as Minister for Trade of Grenada. And, of course, you have arrived in style – to take up your place as Chairman of this Council.
I also want to especially welcome the Hon. Erwin Contreras, Minister of Trade of Belize who is attending his first COTED Meeting.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The recovery efforts in Haiti was definitely a priority item on the agenda of the 31st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community when they got down to dealing with the business of the Community at the Rose Hall Resorts and Spa in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministerial Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) has given its support to a proposal for Haiti to have non-reciprocal access to the Community’s markets for some goods for a period of three years.
The COTED meeting ended in Georgetown on Friday and Chair of the two-day Meeting, Senator the Honourable Joanne Massiah, Minister of State in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Antigua and Barbuda, lauded the magnanimous gesture of Member States.
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(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Commonwealth of Dominica welcomes this opportunity to speak on the issue of bananas. The future trading regime for bananas is a cause for great anxiety to the people of Dominica and other Caribbean States who have derived their livelihoods from the commodity over the last fifty years. |
CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – “It is with a measure of disappointment that on the eve of my departure from office as Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotiations of CARICOM, the FTAA – a central, and probably the most important element of our collective vision - has faltered on the rock of political will.” These were the sentiments of the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Most Hon. P. J. Patterson, who this afternoon addressed a Special Session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C..
“This meeting was timely and useful. We heard Director General Lamy’s perspectives on the current status of the negotiations, the obstacles that impede real progress and the way forward in the negotiations. The Caribbean used the opportunity to reiterate our priorities and articulate our key issues in the Doha Development Round of negotiations”.
The need for ongoing dialogue and multi-stakeholder participation is critical as the region engages in what is now the final stage of the EPA negotiations. The CRNM has already established a number of successful communications outreach initiatives designed to capture the input of the business interests of the Regional private sector through education and training. However, accommodating the conduct of consultations with all Regional civil society constituents is challenged by limitations in the availability of resources.