ST. LUCIA – The Organisation of American States OAS and the World Bank have organized in collaboration with Saint Lucia’s Speaker of the House of Assembly and Minister for Trade, Industry and Commerce a seminar for CARICOM Parliamentarians with responsibility for trade issues.
The seminar “Shaping a Trade Agenda to Promote Regional Integration and Competitiveness for CARICOM: The EPA and other Negotiating Challenges” is also receiving support by the Commonwealth Parliamentarian Association (CPA).
This regional gathering of trade policy makers and experts is taking place against the background of the particular challenges faced by CARICOM countries over the last decade in the era of globalization and in order to facilitate and enhance a broad political debate on using trade arrangements to promote regional integration and competitiveness.
Presentations will be made by several regional and international experts, including Director General of the CARICOM Regional Negotiating Machinery, Ambassador Richard Bernal, Professor Havelock Brewster and Geza Feketeuty, Distinguished Professor, Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Commenting on this OAS initiative, the Organisation’s Representative in Saint Lucia Paul Spencer, stated that it cannot be gainsaid the importance of trade negotiations currently being undertaken by CARICOM as a group. It is for this reason that two Members of Parliament from each CARICOM country with portfolios covering the area of trade and economic development have been invited to participate in the seminar “in order to ensure that views from a broad political spectrum are represented.
The opening ceremony of the seminar will be addressed by the Honourable Speaker of the House Sarah Flood Beaubrun, Minister of Trade, Industry and Commerce, Senator the Honourable Guy Mayers and OAS Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Albert Ramdin.
The meeting was held on Wednesday May 17th, 2007.
