By CARICOM
Photos: CARICOM
Caption for main photo above: Chair of the 59th COTED Meeting, Sen. Hon. Paula Gopee-Scoon, Minister of Trade and Industry, TT (2nd from right), CARICOM SG, Dr Carla Barnett (2nd from left); Amb. Wayne McCook, Assistant Secretary-General, CSM and Michele Lowe, Director, External Trade (ag).
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana – Wednesday, 27 November 2024) – CARICOM Secretary-General Dr. Carla Barnett has called on the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to adopt realistic and practical decisions that everyone in the Community can rely on.
Dr. Barnett made the call at the opening of the Fifty-Ninth Regular Meeting of the COTED on Wednesday 27 November 2024, at the CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana, where she also urged Ministers of Trade to make full use of the Treaty’s rules and flexibilities on agenda items, particularly those that are sensitive.
She commended the progress being made in several areas. such as implementing the approved categories of workers under the Free Movement of Skills Regime of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
“As this COTED deliberates, we are reminded that the framers of the Revised Treaty sought to be careful to strike the right balance between the common interests of the Community and the interests of Member States within our Community of sovereign states. They did not intend to promote winners and losers; rather, the objective is a Community that supports enhanced trade, investment, integration of production, and development for all,” Dr. Barnett said.
Chair of the Meeting, Senator the Hon. Paula Gopee-Scoon, Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago, highlighted the extensive agenda on which the Ministers will deliberate during the two-day meeting. Discussions will centre on matters including the free movement of Community nationals, the Revised Draft Policy on the Regulation of Mergers and Acquisitions, trade in goods, and the status of the Community Intellectual Property Framework.
On the external trade front, the Ministers will focus on multilateral developments from the 13th World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference, CARICOM-Colombia negotiations and partial scope agreements.
“ I want to emphasize this morning the important role that has been assigned to us in COTED as the Council that addresses the Single Market and trade and economic development issues that are at the forefront of our Community’s agenda,” Minister Gopee-Scoon said.
The Meeting concludes on Thursday, 28 November.
About COTED:
The Council for Trade and Economic Development (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.
About CARICOM:
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was established on 4 July 1973 with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which was revised in 2001 to allow for the establishment of a single market and economy. The Community comprises fifteen Member States and six Associate Members. It is home to approximately sixteen million citizens, 60% of whom are under 30 years old. CARICOM rests on four main pillars: economic integration; foreign policy coordination; human and social development; and security cooperation. Through the combined efforts to build a “Community for All”, it remains one of the best examples of integration in the developing world and is the oldest surviving integration movement.The CARICOM Secretariat, the principal administrative organ of the Community, is headquartered in Georgetown, Guyana.
