ACS EMPHASISES NEED FOR GREATER CO-OPERATION IN TRADE

Port of Spain, November 22- The Greater Caribbean, as articulated by the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), is a region that includes most of the countries in Central America and the Eastern and Western Caribbean island states, whose shores in some way are washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

And while the association is moving steadily forward in its quest to develop trade and investment in the region, there are some concerns about real diversification. In a recent paper by Trade Director Alberto Duran Espaillat, he said that “both in the Latin American region and the space referred to as the Greater Caribbean, there is an absence of real diversification of exportable supply of the constituent countries”.

In an effort to change this situation, the ACS is seeking to place greater emphasis on the work of trade promotion organisations of the various Member states. He said, “Empirical evidence suggests that sector concentration of exports per se, is negatively associated with economic growth.

“The main ones include:

- Low export diversification may translate into increased vulnerability to specific sector-based shocks and high volatility of foreign currency earnings from exports and growth; and,

- Reduced diversification limits growth in productivity insofar as it does not promote an increase in the efficient use of inputs or effective learning through export activity.

From the very inception of the Association, the founding Heads of State agreed that to strengthen the broader economic space for trade and investment, it was necessary to create opportunities for businessmen and trade promotions agencies in the Caribbean, where knowledge and business opportunities would be exchanged and which would contribute to the emergence of a business culture within the Greater Caribbean.

The ACS continues to maintain its recognition of the importance of exchanges between shared spaces in the Caribbean and Latin American region and has given the assurance that such a collaboration would certainly contribute to strengthening the trade capacity in the region – a requirement for increasing and diversifying the goods and services produced in the Greater Caribbean region.

Because the importance of continuous dialogue between countries regarding trade is recognised, the association is paying greater attention to the work being done by many of the trade-specific organisations in the region.

There are regional trade promotion agencies like ProExport (Colombia), ProChile (Chile), Exportar (Argentina), Ceprobol (Bolivia), Apex, (Brazil) and Prompex (Peru), which have definite mandates to promote exports through related development tools and opening up international markets and initiatives to support business management.

For the past 11 years now the ACS has constantly promoted exchanges among businessmen in the Greater Caribbean through its many business forums and follow-up to the Red Interamericana de Promocion de las Exportacionesm which comprises agencies responsible for these functions in each of its Member States.

Recent studies by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have indicated and Espaillat quotes in his Paper, “export promotion agencies encourage the expansion of exports of more differentiated goods. Specifically, these overseas offices contribute to increasing both the number of exported products as well as the volume of average exports by product, particularly in the case of more complex goods”.

Recently, after almost two years of negotiations Trinidad and Tobago and Panama signed a Partial Scope Trade Agreement (PSTA) that would allow hundreds of Trinidad and Tobago products greater and easier access to the Panama market and vice versa.

Within months Trinidad and Tobago will sign a similar agreement with Guatemala and soon after that one with El Salvador. The Guatemala agreement is now awaiting certification from the CARICOM Secretariat, while in the case of El Salvador, negotiations are continuing.

Three weeks ago the ACS was invited to attend the 15th ordinary meeting of Red Ibero in Bogota, Colombia, held under the auspices of Colombia’s busy Trade Organisation – ProExport. As part of its objectives, the meeting sought to include the ACS in the work that has been undertaken with Latin America.

Espaillat wrote, “After examining the characteristics of both spaces and identifying the critical need for to join forces between both regions, Red Ibero agreed to host a meeting with the trade promotion organisations (TPO) from the Greater Caribbean and the Alianza Centroamericana de Agencias de Promocion de Exportaciones (ACAPEX) so as to jointly design strategies and, at the same time, to share with the Caribbean network of TPOs tools and initiatives developed for best practice.

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