ST. LUCIA-TRADE-St. Lucia to host ACP-EU trade workshop

A three-day meeting aimed at the further development of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and intra-African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) trade, competitiveness and diversification gets underway here next week.

The January 21-23 meeting, which will also be attended by officials from the European Union, is the culmination of an ACP-EU TradeCom11 Programme, and aims to present and validate the findings of a comparative research report on CARICOM and the EU as well as on the development and implementation of standards and associated technical regulations, the organisers said.

It is also intended to present and validate a study on the situation and use of sustainability standards in CARICOM and train stakeholders in EU standards and regulations on packaging and labelling.

The ACP-EU TradeCOm11 Programme, titled “Targeted assistance to strengthen regional trade related quality infrastructure through intra ACP partnerships CROSQ, ARSO and PIFS,” is being implemented to address improvement goals for regional quality infrastructure. It is being implemented by Quality Institute of Spain in collaboration with the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ).

“It is hoped that this collaboration and the resultant activities over the past year will assist in the development of CARICOM of intra-ACP trade, competitiveness, diversification and economic performance through strengthening of the regional quality infrastructure,” which refers to the development and implementation of standards, systems of weights and measurements, accreditation and conformity assessment regimes.