The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chairman yesterday called for more intra-regional trade to strengthen Caribbean economies amid ongoing COVID-related supply chain woes.

Khrystle Rutherford-Ferguson, speaking at a Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) trade mission to The Bahamas yesterday, urged solutions to increase and sustain region cross-border trade.

She said: “COVID-19 highlighted vulnerabilities that it are incumbent upon us to resolve. And one of the main vulnerabilities that was highlighted was the fact that we do need to band together, we do need to support each other.

“In terms of the Caribbean region, we need to continue to open up the communication on trade, trade lanes, and figure out how best we can support each other in making sure that we do that cross border trade continuously.”

Brickell Pinder, director of trade in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said the CARIFORUM agreement not only facilitates trade between the Caribbean and both the European Union (EU) and the UK, but also trade between nations in this region.

She added that although many Caribbean countries take advantage of the trade concessions with the UK and EU, a regional trade preference regime has not yet been established.

She said: “CARIFORUM, which are the countries of CARICOM, including the Dominican Republic, signed a trade agreement with the European Union called the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). That agreement not only established a framework for trade between CARIFORUM countries and the EU, but article 238 provided a framework for trade between the countries. That regional preference has not been started.

“The Bahamas has indicated that it would extend that preference to other CARIFORUM states, but I think as we move towards integration it’s really important that we press our governments to implement Article 238 of that trade agreement. So the same preferences that can be applied to the European Union, we also apply to each other in the context of that trade agreement.”