Barbados Welcomes Expanding Trade Opportunities

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

08 April 2011

Improved trade ties with the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada will be bolstered further by the signing of new landmark agreements, Barbados’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Maxine McClean announced at a recent business luncheon.

Welcoming the strong ties with its major trading partners, and their contribution to Barbados’s prosperity, McClean said:

"As we witness the rapidly changing international landscape, characterized by the emergence of new centres of economic power, these countries remain important destination markets, sources of investment and critical imports, and major homes of our diaspora."

"Barbados had been helped in this relationship by generous concessions in terms of development assistance and ease of access to markets through unilateral trading preferences. We are aware that such preferences have about ended and we are adjusting rapidly to the new global arena, where free trade is the expected norm."

Alluding to relations with the UK, the Minister explained that there had been a redefinition by way of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). "We are working hastily to bring this Agreement into full legal effect. The EPA is a historic agreement and we must continue to work together to ensure that the potential benefits accrue," she said.

With regards the US, McClean observed that the reshaping of that relationship was "on CARICOM's radar".

"We are presently engaged in negotiations with the USA which will lead to the finalization of a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. This Agreement will serve as a forum for CARICOM and the United States to meet and discuss issues of mutual interest. These include cooperation and the enhancement of trading and investment opportunities," she said.

Representatives at the luncheon further heard that the government is also addressing threats to the offshore and international business sector, and said that Barbados remained a leader in Caribbean affairs with a high level of political stability and a "clean" financial sector.

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