CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – The CARICOM Region is grappling, for the first time, with the complex but highly significant issue of government procurement in the context of external trade negotiations. In order to guide the Region in this undertaking, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) recently convened the first meeting of the Technical Working Group on Government Procurement (TWG-GP) in Kingston, Jamaica, March 17 to 18, 2003. The RNM Director General, Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, in his welcome address noted the timeliness of the meeting and invited Member States to consider the merits of a proactive approach to addressing government procurement in external trade relations, particularly in light of Member States’ recognition of the importance of government procurement to national and regional developmental agendas. He pointed out that it is precisely because government procurement is so critical to economic growth that CARICOM states should pay much closer attention to this issue. Technical discussions, facilitated by CARICOM’s Lead Negotiator for Government Procurement, Patrice Pratt Harrison, centred primarily on the process of developing market access offers, including regional preparation and coordination strategies. Participants took advantage of the opportunity to share experiences and to voice regional and countryspecific concerns in respect of market access in government procurement, which provided the basis for full and frank discussions on several critical issues. Given CARICOM’s commitment to exchange market access offers in government procurement during the April 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiating round, participants undertook to make best efforts to complete their country-offers and return them to the RNM for coordination/compilation no later than March 31, 2003. Participants included finance and trade public officials from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, and representation from the RNM. For More Information Contact: Nand C. Bardouille Tel: (246) 430-1678 email: nbardouille@sunbeach.net