Over 50 trade barriers to be removed

…as Caricom establishes working group to boost regional transport

Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have established an inter-governmental working group to advance arrangements to improve maritime transportation in the Region.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, the Caricom Chair, made the announcement at a press conference following the 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Barbados.
She disclosed that Senator Dr Amery Browne, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, would head this working group, and ministers from Guyana and Jamaica, among other countries, would be part of it.
Also revealing that extensive discussions were held on improving air and maritime transportation between member states, she disclosed, “We also spoke about the urgent importance of maritime transport and air transport. But in particular, building on the arrangements, the initial discussions, and negotiations we’ve been having on ferry transport, we invited the private sector to be able to look at other opportunities with respect to how this can be facilitated with access to specific charter services, rather than the governments assume the responsibility for the purchase of equipment.”
Further, the Chair disclosed that, within the next six weeks, the working group must identify the steps to be taken towards mutual recognition of drivers’ licences, insurance products, and the removal of non-tariff barriers, among other things, for the smooth intra-regional movement of goods.
“…to be able to identify within the next six weeks what has to be the work programme to the mutual recognition of drivers’ licences, insurance, cover insurance products to cover vehicles in multiple countries; the harmonization of the customs and phytosanitary regulations necessary for the seamless movement of goods; and, to be more specific, to dismantle 57 barriers, non-tariff barriers identified by the Caribbean Private Sector Organization,” she detailed.

Ferry service
At the opening of the 2024 Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Change Expo, Guyana’s President, Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali, had announced that Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados would launch a ferry service to improve intra-regional transportation. It was envisioned that, in addition to being a cost-effective means of moving citizens of the three countries, this regional ferry service would play a critical role in Caricom’s food security initiative, the 25 by 2025 Initiative, which is to reduce the regional food bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025.
However, it has recently been reported that the operationalization of this ferry service is being delayed by the high cost of a roll-on-roll-off vessel, which would be needed to transport both people and cargo between the three countries.