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.