The Sixtieth (60th) Regular Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) is scheduled to convene in Georgetown, Guyana, from June 10 to June 11. According to a CARICOM press release, the meeting will be chaired by the Honorable Kerrie Symmonds, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, with the feature remarks from Symmonds as well as the CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr. Carla Barnett.
The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) is described on the CARICOM website as promoting “trade and economic development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and oversees the operations of the Single Market and Economy.”
The agenda for the two-day meeting includes several critical trade topics. Among these are the proposed implementation of the revised Common External Tariff (CET), progress reports from the Sectoral Working Group reviewing CARICOM Rules of Origin, and updates from the Monitoring Mechanisms on sugar, cement, and rice.
Ministers will also discuss compliance with the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and decisions previously made by COTED, as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the operations of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The press release indicates that other key items on the agenda include the review of a draft Industrial Policy and Strategy for 2025-2030 and discussions related to the free movement of Community nationals. An update will be provided on a recent consultancy commissioned to assess the impact and potential benefits of the CSME, a study funded by the European Union under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF).
Furthermore, the Council will examine external trade issues, such as recent developments at the World Trade Organization, the implications of the United States’ “America First” trade policy on CARICOM’s trade and economic prospects, and negotiations aimed at expanding preferential market access under the Agreement on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation between CARICOM and the Government of Colombia.
Every week Caribbean people are inundated with summits, conferences, meetings organised by CARICOM. What is most per turning about these gatherings is they are of little or no value. The harsh economic state of affairs in each member country doesn’t improve.
These numerous conferences are more of an opportunity to lavish tax layers hard earned money on officials. The hundreds of thousands of dollars used for travel, accommodation, food, sight seeing, could be put to use to repair dilapidated public buildings, the hop-scotch roads, raise the unlivable minimum wage among others.
The present heads of government are just supercilious logomaniacs – unfit for purpose.