(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Ministers with responsibility for Foreign Trade will convene in Bridgetown, Barbados on the 9 September 2006, for the Seventeenth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED). The focus of the one-day meeting will be on External Trade Negotiations.

Among the items on the Agenda to be discussed are the status of the World Trade Organisation negotiations; resumption of discussions in the CARICOM-United States Trade and Investment Council (TIC); Bilateral Agreements; and the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations.

Honourable Dame Billie Miller, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados and Coordinator of Ministerial Spokespersons for External Trade Negotiations, will deliver brief remarks and preside over the Meeting.

. The focus of the one-day meeting will be on External Trade Negotiations.

Among the items on the Agenda to be discussed are the status of the World Trade Organisation negotiations; resumption of discussions in the CARICOM-United States Trade and Investment Council (TIC); Bilateral Agreements; and the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations.

Honourable Dame Billie Miller, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados and Coordinator of Ministerial Spokespersons for External Trade Negotiations, will deliver brief remarks and preside over the Meeting.