(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Haiti’s Prime Minister the Honourable Michelle Duvivier Pierre Louis has lent her strong support to a public education programme on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in Haiti.

The programme is being undertaken by the CARICOM Representation Office in Haiti (CROH) and its Haitian counterpart agency, the Bureau de Coordination et Suivi. The CARICOM Representation Office in Haiti, established with the assistance of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is co-ordinating a Canadian Government funded project to assist Haiti to implement the CSME as quickly as possible. Haiti joined the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in 2002.

The public education programme aims at informing Haitians about the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the implications for the country of its participation in the CSME. The programme will also provide other CARICOM Member States with information about Haiti that will give them a fresh perspective about the French and Creole speaking Member State.

Speaking at the formal launch of the programme at the Karibe Convention Center in Port au Prince last Friday evening 24th July 2009, Prime Minister Duvivier Pierre Louis agreed that the programme was necessary and declared that it was time to promote a new image of Haiti abroad. The launching ceremony featured television and radio announcements that will be used in the first phase of a Haiti/CSME mass media campaign that will begin in Haiti and the Region in August.

The Prime Minister also committed her government to meeting the target date of 1 January 2010 which it has set for the commencement of free trade in goods between Haiti and other Member States party to the Single Market. She called upon all relevant government departments to play their part in ensuring that Haiti fulfills its pledge. Among other measures needed to begin the free trade in goods, the Haitian parliament has to adopt the CARICOM External Tariff as Haiti’s national tariff.

Director of the CARICOM Representation Office in Haiti, Ambassador Earl Stephen Huntley, speaking at the launching ceremony said that Haitians should not think of the CSME as just as a mechanism for other countries to take advantage of the vast Haitian market of 9 million people but that they should see it as an opportunity for them to trade with CARICOM and expand business and employment opportunities for the country. Ambassador Huntley gave several examples of Haitian products that could find ready markets in CARICOM countries.