CARICOM: Change is easy, but improvement is difficult

KINGSTON, Jamaica - THE current trade concerns, discussed by Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, represent the growing pains within the regional trading environment after 40 years of endeavour and investment intended to arrive eventually at a viable common economic and cultural space. We will then be able to develop strategies to promote further regional advancement, while confronting the convolution born of the world recession. This healthy democratic discourse is not about the dissolution of CARICOM as a regional entity, but regaining the forward momentum to engage the likes of the US, China and Europe, all of whom have expressed the need for a vibrant single user-friendly market to nurture any future direct foreign investment.
The Government of Jamaica (GOJ), as the trade facilitator for Jamaica, is yet to demonstrate vibrancy in its role. This is necessary to activate the new export-led trade policy discussed during the last two years of its completion. To this end, the private sector has repeated, incessantly, that the export of goods and services together with ancillary machinery, equipment and raw materials essential for export manufacturing and shipment abroad, should not be taxed. This facility was included in T&T's national budget this year and is valid for a period of two years. All Other Duties and Charges (ODCs) should have been eliminated by now in accordance with the WTO directives.