Poverty, Rising Cost Of Living in the Caribbean High On Agenda Of Special Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED)
NASSAU, The Bahamas – In its quest to stem the rising cost of living in the Caribbean Region, the Twenty-Fourth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) is expected to make a determination regarding the removal or reduction of the Common External Tariff (CET) on certain commodities. The COTED Meeting will be held in Nassau, The Bahamas on March 5.
Poverty and the Rising Cost of living was one of the Agenda items of the Twelfth Special Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in December 2007. It will also be an item on the agenda of the Nineteenth Inter-sessional Meeting of the Heads of State and Government taking place in Nassau on March 7-8.
At the meeting in Georgetown on December 7, 2007 at the International Convention Centre, Liliendaal, Heads agreed that the Common External Tariff (CET) was the most appropriate instrument for an intervention at the Community level to address the issue of the rising cost of living. A Technical Team was subsequently established to review a set of commodities which have a significant weight in the Consumer Price Index; are not significantly produced or have a close substitute in the Region, and which attract a CET.
At the end of its Twenty-Fifth Meeting in Georgetown in January 2008, COTED requested Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to submit national lists of items on which they would be prepared to reduce or remove the CET. The COTED took this decision after lengthy, intense but incomplete discussions in search of a single common list to fulfill the mandate of the Heads of Government.
In addition to Poverty and the Rising Cost of Living, the Special COTED will also consider the Report of the Meeting of the Reflections Group which was held in Jamaica 28-29 February 2008. The Reflections Group reviewed CARICOM’s experience and approach to external trade negotiations using the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) case. The meeting will be presented with the Agreement following the completion of a review by legal minds.
An update on, and outlook for the multilateral trade negotiations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be another key agenda item of the one-day meeting.
