Trinidad and Tobago, Caricom exploring trade with Africa

MINISTER of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon led a delegation to Guyana for the second AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum, in Georgetown, Guyana.

The trade minister met with executives of Afrieximbank (the African Eximbank) on the bank’s work in the region and potential opportunities for collaboration in the future.

The visit and the participation in the forum were part of Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to explore trade opportunities for trade with Africa.

During the meeting with Afrieximbank, exploratory discussions on potential trade and investment opportunities were held with Dr Amany Asfour, president of the Africa Business Council and CEO of Evergreen Egypt United, on fish farming, processing and trade.

At the forum, Guyanese president Dr Irfan Ali highlighted its importance as a space for the two regions to discuss solutions to the challenge of integrating and trading. He said regional governments were ready to facilitate and challenged the private sector to come together to unblock the problem of transport between regions.

Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley and St Lucian Prime Minister Philip J Pierre both said there were many benefits that would come out of deeper collaboration between the regions, and Dr Carla Natalie Barnett, Secretary-General of the Caricom Secretariat, said while trade is a mere US$500 million, she was encouraged by the many ITC studies which demonstrated significant potential for trade on both sides.