CARICOM PRIVATE SECTOR MEETING

It's a call for support of regional Governments to fully benefit from the CSME.

Transcript

00:00A lot of work is needed if the region is to fully benefit from the CARICOM's single market economy.

00:07Businesses must start seeing regional neighbours as partners, not just competitors.

00:13Whether it's a Jamaican manufacturer teeping up with a Bayesian distributor,

00:18or a St. Lucia tech firm building solutions with a Trinidadian developer,

00:24these are the kinds of linkages that drive regional value chains.

00:28We've seen it work in other trading blocks, and we too must make it work.

00:34But the support of governments of member states is imperative in the harmonization of regulations,

00:40the clearing of bottlenecks at ports, and the computerizing of custom systems.

00:46We fully support the goals of the CARICOM single market and economy, but those goals need action.

00:52We need to tear down the non-tariff barriers that make trade between our islands harder

00:58than it is to have trade with countries that are thousands of miles away.

01:04Chair of the CARICOM private sector organization, Gervis Warner,

01:08says the U.S. first policy is a wake-up call for the region.

01:12We had Zoom calls with over 500 people on it to discuss this issue.

01:17We were able to spend time with heads in special meetings to brief them, wrote papers,

01:22made lots of appeals, and we dodged a bullet, right?

01:26Shipping costs to this region were spared an extra $1,500 to $2,500 per container

01:33by the collective efforts in this room.

01:38He cited the U.S. reciprocal tariff as a sore point for the region.

01:43I don't think we appreciate the threat that this represents to our economies.

01:49When we in the CARICOM private sector organization have done some analytical work,

01:55this represents like $550 million of potential lost exports to the United States.

02:04Meanwhile, Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the CSME is the center of CARICOM's shared agenda.

02:11But yet, intra-CARICOM trade remains just at 11.2% of our total trade.

02:22So there is great room for us to expand internally our own trade and development.

02:35As global shocks multiply and traditional markets become more uncertain,

02:41the CSME must be treated not just as an economic aspiration,

02:46but as a critical shield of resilience and self-reliance.

02:50The region, he adds, will benefit from the settling of Haiti's turmoil.

02:56The situation that gangs have taken over a state is not a good example for this region.

03:05And the longer it stays in that state, the longer it will be a threat for all states in this region.

03:15Orvashi Tawari, Rupna Rai, TV6 News.

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