Preparations have begun for the 60th Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which will be held early next month in Georgetown, Guyana.

Under the chairmanship of Honourable Kerrie Symmonds, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, regional ministers responsible for trade and economic development will meet 10-11 June.

To advance the ministerial agenda, officials met virtually on 7-8 May. Barbados’ Director of Foreign Trade, Paula Byer, chaired the preparatory sessions. She underlined the importance of COTED which addresses the key single market, trade and economic development issues at the heart of the Community’s agenda.

She highlighted some of the matters for discussion such as the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), including the free movement of nationals, the Community Competition Policy, the draft regional Industrial Policy, trade in goods, and considerations on the revision of the Common External Tariff and Rules of Origin.

External economic relations, and draft rules of procedures of the COTED, were among the matters on the agenda of the Meeting of Officials.

Ambassador Wayne McCook, Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, spoke before the session began, describing it as a “key meeting” with a “significant agenda” with “intra-regional and extra-regional trade issues that require close and careful attention”. He called for expeditious action on decisions that the officials will recommend to the Ministers to advance timely and effective implementation of the trade and economic integration and development agenda of the Region